This brief analysis of the challenges facing the expanded NATO mandate in Afghanistan sheds light on the real politics of the "cartoon jihad"—obviously, the Danish cartoons have been seized upon as a symbol and crystalization of a much wider set of greivances, which may vary from country to country but generally have to do with a sense of national humiliation. Afghans have bitter memories of the Soviet occupation, and even if they are happy to see the Taliban gone they are going to resent the increased NATO presence. The inter-related challenges NATO faces include popular unrest, Taliban insurgency (especially in the south), continued internecine warlord violence (especially in the north), and the potential for internationalization of the conflict, with US ally Pakistan ironically serving as a Taliban guerilla staging ground and Iran viewing the Western troop presence on its eastern border uneasily. From the (State Department-funded) Radio Free Afghanistan, Feb. 13:

Afghanistan's only female warlord, her existence heretofore a rumor, has been contacted by journalists in the remote Darisujan Valley of northern Baghlan province. From The Telegraph, Feb. 18:

This would be funny if it weren't so tragic. Having played the divide-and-conquer game of pitting Iraq's ethnic and religious groups against each other, treating the nascent state as a pie to be divided up by sectarian factions, the US and Britain now realize it could collapse into civil war and lecture about the importance of "national unity" and "nonsectarianism." Meanwhile, the heroic Iraqi resistance continues its glorious crusade against...liquor stores and beauty parlors. From AP, Feb. 21:

Ah, yes. "National security." That magical incantation by which all standards of transparency and humanitarian law can be summarily dismissed. This time applied in the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was "renditioned" by US authorities to Syria to be tortured—the same Syria, incidentally, which the US is seeking to destabilize (and will doubtless use its grisly human rights record as propaganda ammo in the service of this effort)! The irony is starting to make us a little dizzy these days... From the Canadian Press, Feb. 17:

Boy, things are really getting out of hand. Here's how the European double standard on free speech paradoxically legitimizes and strengthens Holocaust revisionism. Europe defends Islamophobia in the name of freedom of expression, while denying that same freedom to the anti-Semites. In juvenile retaliation, Iran demands access to Auschwitz to conduct lugubrious pseudo-scientific "experiments" of the kind the professional deniers ("revisionists") have already surreptitously carried out, and which they love to cite with great glee. How comforting that this once-marginal crowd is now emulated by a regionally powerful government with a seat at the United Nations. From Italy's AKI, Feb. 20:

Hooray! We have had our problems with Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt before—last year we had to call her out for defending the dangerous notion of what her critics call "Jewish exclusivism" as genocide victims. But in the current poisonous atmosphere, she has been one of the few voices to defend free speech without double standards or equivocation—and this includes free speech for her most bitter enemy, the notorious Holocaust denier David Irving. From the Globe & Mail, Feb. 20, emphasis added:

The Dalai Lama just visited Israel, where no Israeli official would meet with him. According to the following account, a Palestinian NGO also agreed to cancel his visit to the occupied Palestinian territories at China's request. From the Middle East Times, Feb. 20:

Dalai Lama visit to Bethlehem canceled to avoid China clash
BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, had a visit to Bethlehem canceled at the request of the Palestinian Authority, which is unwilling to antagonize China, organizers said on Monday.

Now, obviously the reality of Abu Ghraib and the Iraq horrorshow generally is an essential backdrop to the anti-cartoon protests. But isn't there something pretty sick about the paucity of coverage the release of the new torture photos has received in comparison to the seas of ink spilled over the cartoon controversy? About the fact that the rioters throughout the Muslim world are at least ostensibly reacting to offensive cartoons rather than real torture? And, finally, about the utter hypocrisy of "free speech" in the West—as manifested by the Bush administration's protests over the photos being printed and broadcast? Big ups to Australia's Special Broadcasting Service for resisting White House pressure. From The Australian, Feb. 17: