Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Chilean embassys burning!

[Happy Times]

In Damascus Syria, Danish, Swdish and Chilean embassies were burned today and the Norwegian embassy has been attacked now. That leaves Finland still untouched, well we only had the cartoons in TV.

[Kapitan]

be prepared

[STEED]

What's this world coming to?

[Gorduz]

how can a cartoon printed in a newspaper in Norway bring out so much anger. I blame the media for flaming this Mohammad caricatures up in the skys. But the real problem for Norway now is that we now have lost all credibility to be able to do diplomatic work.

[sonar732]

Wouldn't that be considered an act against a state? Diplomatic relations are going down the tube for Syria as it is and now, they aren't prohibiting their people from burning embassies of other nations. Not good...

[Takeda Shingen]

Yes, Syria is running out of friends at a time when they could use them. Hopefully, no Danes, Sweedes, Chilaens and (heaven forbid) Fins, will be hurt and the only end results will be the destruction of property and the Syrian people slitting their own diplomatic throats.

[bradclark1]

Best thing that should be done is all countries recall embassy staffs.

[DAB]

Its a diplomatic incident if Syria didn't try and stop it. My understanding is that they did.

To be fair, different communities (AND I will post negatively in capitals at anyone who uses the word "Civilisations" ) have different priorities and threasholds regarding morality. Legally the media has done nothing wrong, but does that mean they have been responsible.

Their is an analogy. If a newspaper published cartoons about women that portrayed them as 'growbags' with no intellegence etc etc etc - there are few countries where that is illegal. But it is sexist and insulting to European and American sensibilities.

Does that excuse firebombing an embassy, of course not. But it does explain it. And lets face it, its not as if many people on these boards have not been prone to overreactions over petty things

Hands up people here who called French Fries "Freedom Fries" in 2003-2004

[Catfish]

Hello,
if you look at the facts this is indeed a declaration of war - it is no spontaneous outburst of anger, but a direct action triggered, guided and covered by the syrian government.

Well the problem is that it is not the average man from the street, nor the educated people who have studied abroad and returned to Syria, that triggered this - but the syrian "government", or better dictatorship.

Ordinary people will again suffer most of the forthcoming incidents. Governments always go to war and blame other peoples if they want to divert there own people from internal problems, works always since the beginning of mankind.

Christians (and i do not mean those US american sects and splinter groups) have lived thousands of years being accused as unbelievers, had to fight back islamic invasions again and again, certainly made faults with those crusades, but are now trying to remain open for discussion, and now that? Syria, if you take a cartoon as a reason for war you do not know what awaits you.
I wonder whether there is one state in the whole world that can live in peace with its islamic neighbour, even if it's islamic itself. I also wonder whether believing in a religion in a way that daily life and dealing with people of other cultures are influenced in such a way, automatically reduces the IQ by some fifty percent ?

Greetings,
Catfish


"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it" (Someone)
"No fu**ing human being has ever learned from history" (Catfish)

[AG124]

Hands up people here who called French Fries "Freedom Fries" in 2003-2004

That wasn't one of the Americans' better or more sensible ideas. But still, I never saw any US citizens burning down the French embassy or calling for a fatawa against French leaders or encouraging severe limits on freedom of speech (although Michael Moore might argue otherwise on that one :P ).

With the recent warnings to Syria lately (from the French too, even though they did not take the same stand with Iraq) I don't think Syria (ar any other Middle East Islamic nation) is pursing an intelligent course of action. I have heard that a few more leaders are calling for restraint - maybe some in power are worried what might happen if the West stops appeasing them - they could lose the wealth and influence they are getting from oil production. They probably don't care too much about the religious beliefs of their subjects unless they can use them. But I don't know, I'm just guessing.

[Skybird]

Very well. The hotter the fires, the bigger the chance that Europeans will wake up from their flirt with Islam.

[August]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Very well. The hotter the fires, the bigger the chance that Europeans will wake up from their flirt with Islam.

QFT.

[Type XXIII]

Catfish, can you provide those 'facts'.? Looks like it was triggered by extremist factions to me. (I do not consider the Syrian government to be an extremist faction.)

Still, remember all the hippies throwing stones at US embassies back in '69. That didn't start any wars. (It rather stopped one.) Is it your opinion that it should have?

[TteFAboB]

There's a big difference between throwing rocks and burning an embassy, whatever the effect is, one will break alot of glass and hurt anyone who approaches the windows, the other will kill people inside and destroy everything if the fire isn't or cannot be extinguished anymore.

[CCIP]

Well...

This has decidedly made my view more negative - it doesn't make me any less of a skeptic of the West, but decidedly more of a skeptic of the 'East' here. I hope this has similar effects on as many other people as possible.