Spoiling for a Fight.
Even if one is spoiling for a fight it never looks good to be the one to start things.
Throughout the ages this has been true and in the runup to many of the world's wars there are two sides trying to maneuver the other into taking the first shot. Many have said Roosevelt and his administration maneuvered the Japanese into taking the first shot, Abraham Lincoln and his administration did likewise with the Confederacy. It remains and open question if Roosevelt and Lincoln were intending to bring on war or if they simply decided to hold a line.
In smaller scale confrontations often the side to lose its cool first is the one tagged with blame for starting a conflict. It is always important to keep your cool, lose and not only do you come out the loser you look like and idiot and perhaps worse consequences are to follow (assault charges and the like).
This is in essence what the Danish cartoon row have turned into. A provocation and the Radical Islamists have bitten on the provocation extremely hard. The issuance of serious threats against Denmark in particular and Europe and the West in general over this is now a minutely occurence. The Radical Islamists have lost their cool.
So what was once a silly set of cartoons is now turning into a pretext for serious violence. What will happen when one of the issued threats becomes reality?
Throughout the ages this has been true and in the runup to many of the world's wars there are two sides trying to maneuver the other into taking the first shot. Many have said Roosevelt and his administration maneuvered the Japanese into taking the first shot, Abraham Lincoln and his administration did likewise with the Confederacy. It remains and open question if Roosevelt and Lincoln were intending to bring on war or if they simply decided to hold a line.
In smaller scale confrontations often the side to lose its cool first is the one tagged with blame for starting a conflict. It is always important to keep your cool, lose and not only do you come out the loser you look like and idiot and perhaps worse consequences are to follow (assault charges and the like).
This is in essence what the Danish cartoon row have turned into. A provocation and the Radical Islamists have bitten on the provocation extremely hard. The issuance of serious threats against Denmark in particular and Europe and the West in general over this is now a minutely occurence. The Radical Islamists have lost their cool.
So what was once a silly set of cartoons is now turning into a pretext for serious violence. What will happen when one of the issued threats becomes reality?
posted by Marcus Aurelius at 10:34 AM
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