Cowardice in the "War on Terror"

Have you noticed that the MSM have resolutely avoided any possibly of offending Islamic terrorists? Oh sure, they say they just don't want to offend the vast majority of peace-loving Muslims (who also seem reluctant to offend the "tiny" extremist elements among them). They're more than happy to point out anything offensive to Muslims if it will serve to undermine the Bush administration, though.

Now it appears that the Berlin Opera House is the latest entity to capitulate to the fear of Islamic terrorists by canceling the performance of an avant-garde version of a Mozart opera that included a scene that included the severed heads of prominent religious figures, including Mohammed. German government officials reportedly urged that the "show must should go on," but the opera house chose to cancel anyway. Does anyone doubt that the terrorists are winning.

[Remember, it was the Germans who quietly freed the terrorist Mohammad Ali Hammadi not in exchange for the release of Susanne Osthoff, a German national working in Iraq who was "kidnapped" by terrorists last year. Susanne is suspected of having participated in her own abduction and assisted her Baathist "captors" in this scam to get Germany to release an important terrorist and cancel the training they had agreed to provide to Iraqi security forces. Don't expect the German government to file charges against her, though.]

Whether the opera production was tasteless or inappropriate is beside the point. Many, if not most, artistic presentations could be characterized as tasteless or inappropriate (Pis Christ, Madonna, CBS News, etc.). Those of us who value civil liberties will allow such garbage as part of the price of having our own freedom.

The performance was reportedly cancelled because the German police informed the opera house that it could result in "a violent backlash from Muslim fundamentalists." They weren't worried about angry Christians or Buddhists, though (why is that?). Although no Muslim group had expressed displeasure with the scheduled performance, it's not hard to imagine that someone would have jumped at yet another excuse to torch some cars or blow up something.

Frankly, I'm getting a little sick and tired of all this tip-toeing around Muslim sensitivities. I was genuinely proud of President George W. Bush when he said to those who wished to attack us, "Bring 'em on!" I was genuinely disappointed when he backed off from that rare show of strength and defiance of our enemy.

The MSM promotes such cowardice in the way it reports (or fails to report) the news. A good example is Newsweek magazine. It couldn't wait to publish an unfounded (and false) rumor that guards at Guantanamo had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet (a physical impossibility, btw), but at the height of the Danish cartoon kerfluffle, the editors at Newsweek refused to publish the cartoons in question to show everyone what the "news" was all about. In fact, no major news outlet had the courage to show what was causing the uproar.

Whatever you might think of former President John F. Kennedy, he inspired me when he said:

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Is there a leader in this country today who has that kind of courage?