Will The Left Ever Get It?

Now that The Nation has editorialized over Kartoonistan, we can scratch our heads and say together, "Huh?"

Here are the Lefties, building to their big point:

The cartoon scandal is about much more than freedom of speech. At its heart the controversy is about power--the power of images; the power that divides Muslim and non-Muslim Europeans, the West and the Middle East; the power of radical Islamists to silence more moderate voices--and the responsibility that comes with power. In today's volatile political climate--charged by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, by Israel's construction of the "separation wall" in Palestine, by the controversy over the hijab and the revolt in the French banlieues, by the growth of anti-immigration politics and radical Islam in "liberal" Europe and by the velocity with which news and rumor travel on the Internet--the point is not Jyllands-Posten's right to publish but its editorial wisdom, its sense of civic responsibility.

Everything is a power struggle with the Left, never a moral struggle. And in their litany of wrongs, where do we find 9/11, 7/7, Madrid and the particular difficulties Muslims have caused in Scandanavia? The only reference is a toss-off: "radical islam in 'liberal' Europe." All we see a list of Muslim grievances.

Jyllands-Posten's actions can only be judged against the complete background, which includes Islam's actions towards the West. But The Nation avoids this half of history, so it can reach this conclusion:

But whether or not the publishing of the cartoons was a reckless provocation, and whether or not the violent response was manipulated by Islamists, we must come to terms with the conditions that created the tinderbox. Cartoons embody larger political and social issues ... discrimination against Muslims is an objective fact: Racially motivated crimes in Denmark have recently doubled. After the cartoon crisis has passed, that truth will remain.

First, tell me how many of those racially motivated crimes are Scandanavian-on-Muslim, and how many are Muslim-on-Scandanavian. Then tell me how the former number compares to the death, injury and financial damage radical Islamists have brought to the West. Peanuts! Pittances! And finally, can we talk a bit about discrimination against the West by Muslims?

Their violence towards us will occasionally bring a result that doesn't please The Nation. So be it. We can try to be better and noble, but when our politeness breaks, look to the cause, not the effect.