Cartoons

"We have some 150,000 soldiers in two Islamic countries at the moment. The last thing we need is to get involved in a mess that will make things even harder for the guys over there. We do stand behind Denmark, but pragmatism dictates that we not take a boldly public stance right now."

Maybe. But it seems to me that by standing quiet we are empowering our enemies and silencing our friends. There are people in the Muslim world who favor free speech, even at the expense of the Prophet's depiction. Satire has a long history that is not exclusive to the West.

By standing silent on the issue, we are saying to the moderates, we will not stand with you on issues, so long as the fanatics are willing to go crazy. Is this our criteria? Are these our principles?

Maybe it'll make the soldiers job tougher. But our soldiers must say, "look, we don't hate Islam or Mohammed, but we have the right to poke fun. We think this is important."

Someone who can't handle that doesn't need to be coddled or respected - they need to change.

The easiest thing to do isn't always the right thing.