As Chuck Todd noted, we are 10 days removed from the
terrorist attacks that occurred in Paris and since then Charlie Hebdo has published a new edition of its magazine; of
course not surprisingly followed by mass protests in several Muslims countries
around the world, and not just against the publication but also against the
West.
The protests are due to Charlie Hebdo's new cover which
depicts the Prophet Mohammed (a definite no-no for Muslims) saying, “All is
forgiven,” and holding up a sign that says “I am Charlie,” a cover by the way
that NBC and many other news organizations are not showing in its entirety.
Protests against the magazine are obvious, but Muslims are also
protesting the West because of the rallies that occurred in support of the
publication. Those rallies are being wrongly interpreted as people in the West
supporting the defamation of the Prophet Mohammed. That logic is misplaced and misunderstood on such a grand
scale by so many people, it is not accidental. There is no way that that happens
by accident. Usually you only have to look as far as to see who profits from such
conflict whether that be in monetary terms or populist terms and you'll get
your answer.
Democracies believe in free speech, and free speech isn't
easy. People aren't necessarily saying that they agree with what the magazine says or
represents, with the exception of it representing free speech. For those who
are uncomfortable with the content of the magazine and therefore are reticent
to support it, need to show a little bit more of a backbone and support it
wholeheartedly (if you truly believe in free speech.)
We, at this column, do believe in free speech and we believe
that Charlie Hebdo has the right to
say what it wants editorially. Would we always take them seriously? Of course
not.
However, given our belief in free speech we believe that you
do have the right to see the cover and make your own assessment. Below is the
latest cover of the publication, Charlie Hebdo:
This brings us to the interview with Charlie Hebdo editor-in-chief
Gerard Biard, the main point you take from that it, and the comments from the
panel that followed, is that free speech isn’t always pleasing, and again never
easy. Mr. Biard explained that one of the philosophical tenets of the magazine
is that religion entering into politics is wrong and should be challenged
because it leads to totalitarianism. We understand what he's saying in as much as that forcing people to live by a narrow set of prescriptions doesn't allow for divergent opinion and oppresses it. He also said that this perspective is
applied to all religions and not just Islam. The very concept that he is
explaining is a problem for people in many countries, and not just predominantly
Islamic countries. There are many in the United States, evangelicals, that would
disagree with what Mr. Biard is saying. In fact, in the United States, given that, many people disagree with the first amendment, which says that no law shall
be made relevant to religion. Then there are the obvious Muslim country examples of
Saudi Arabia and Iran whose governments are theocratic.
This is the debate; this is the conversation; this is not
the reason to resort to violence. Another notion that comes to mind is that you
have to ask, “How strong is your belief if you feel threatened by someone who
disagrees with you. Sometimes, you can interpret anger as insecurity. To not feel angry or insecure in your
beliefs it takes a more evolved thinking, the deeper your understanding.
Reeling in all the esoteric discussion, we return to comment
on what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had to say about the current state of the
Middle East. Once again, he believes that the cause for all this chaos
happening now is that President Obama made the wrong decision in withdrawing US
forces from the country. Mr. Graham still believes that the Iraq war was the
right thing to do, and given that base thinking, the prism through which he
looks at the US policy in the Middle East is warped, and that’s because going
into Iraq in the first place was a mistake.
Sen. Graham explained that there should be a coalition force
led by the United States on the ground in Iraq battling ISIS, training the free
Syrian army, and essentially becoming directly involved in the Syrian Civil
War, which does not exclude fighting the Assad government directly. What Mr.
Graham is advocating for is perpetual war. Not to mention the fact that the
American people want to see less military intervention instead of more. Mr. Graham would tell you that
sometimes decisions like this aren't popular but they are necessary. No, that
is incorrect. We find it funny that based on Mr. Graham's foreign policy views
he feels that he would be a good candidate for president, which is simply
ridiculous.
And this leads us to ending this week's column on a lighter
note, which is the notion of Mitt Romney running for president a third time
being comical. The Wall Street Journal in
an editorial asked, “if Mitt Romney is the answer, what is the question?” That
says it all and the only reason for Mitt Romney to run for president, and for
you to vote for him to be president, is simply to see Mitt Romney be the
president. That's it; there's no other reason for him to be president aside
from his simple sole desire to hold that office. There are so many reasons why
he should not do it that it would be incredibly difficult to go through them all
in any reasonable amount of time. Too many reasons to count, however we would speculate that at
least 47% of those reasons would be enough to persuade him not to run.
Panel: Michael
Steele, fmr. RNC Chair; Robert Gibbs, fmr. Obama Administration Press
Secretary; Kelly O’Donnell, NBC News; Carol Lee, The Wall Street Journal