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Applebaum (Washington Post), February 13 2006

Text Source

Applebaum, Anne (Washington Post). "Knowledge may not foster understanding." Lawrence Journal-World (Lawrence, KS: Lawrence Journal-World; http://www.ljworld.com. February 13 2006): http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/feb/13/knowledge_may_not_foster_understanding/.


Message Unit 1 - an example of patriotized history

The US is responsible for the overthrow of democracy in Indonesia and Iran, for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people in the great Indonesian holocaust of the mid-1960s, and for decades of horrors, killings, torture, and imprisonments by US-backed regimes in both countries.
The US hasn't done anything to the people of Surabaya (Indonesia) or Tehran (Iran).

text:

The trouble started in Denmark, a faraway country of which we know little. It revolves around cartoons, an art form we associate with light humor. It has sparked riots in Surabaya, Tehran, Peshawar and rural Somalia, places where there aren't many Americans in the best of times.

Message Unit 2 - an example of patriotized history

The US rules Afghanistan and kills any Afghani citizen who resists.
The US project in these countries is not violent.

text:

... the violence, anger and deaths sparked by a dozen Danish cartoons ...

Message Unit 3 - an example of patriotized history

US-controlled Afghani forces just shot several Afghani citizens who were protesting in their own country. Ordinarily, this would have been an outrage; the ostensible "Afghanistan" forces just killed several of their own citizens in their own country for protesting the presence of a foreign conqueror, and they did it because they, quite rightly, recognized that they work for the foreign conqueror, not for their own country's citizens. Yet it is not an outrage; instead, it is routine, just like the other US killings of citizens in their own countries all over the world.
It was the protesters, not the US-led forces, who were being violent in this incident.

text:

... the violence, anger and deaths sparked by a dozen Danish cartoons ...

Message Unit 4 - an example of patriotized history

Ordinarily, If a country had been doing what the US has in recent history, especially in some of the very countries this article is talking about, other unattractive characteristics would come to mind. What about America's habit of killing the citizens of other countries, taking over their countries, imprisoning the citizens of other countries, blowing up the stuff they have made, etc., all on a routine basis? Those things seem to be fairly salient political characteristics that might have come to mind when one thinks about America, especially when one is discussing anger in some of the countries where the US is doing these things.
The unattractive political features of America that we should be worried about are "Schadenfreude" and various mild hypocrisies.

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Nevertheless, the controversy has exposed a few less attractive political undercurrents in America, too: ... Schadenfreude ... Hypocrisy of the cultural left ... Hypocrisy of the right-wing blogosphere.

Message Unit 5 - an example of patriotized history

The US just conquered several countries and killed a hundred thousand people. It rules several other countries and kills any of the citizens who don't at least pretend to submit. It has a long history of doing the same thing all over the world. It is the only country that routinely kills the citizens of other countries in their own homes all over the world. It also thinks that it has the right to rule over the people of other countries without their consent, and to decide which of them live and which of them die, and that this US tyranny is not tyranny, and in fact does not constitute a violation of those people's freedom or democracy at all. It has a limitlessly self-righteous and thus limitlessly expansionist and tyrannical ideology.
Now that they have rioted, Muslims are obviously more dangerous than America.

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I was told by a ... Norwegian that "America is the most dangerous country in the world." (I wonder if he thinks so now.)

Message Unit 6 - an example of patriotized history

This NATO base is simply another part of US control of Afghanistan. NATO is not an independent body; it is US-led.
"A Norwegian NATO base in Afghanistan" is not a weapon of American power.

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... Europeans are the object of flag burnings and riots instead of themselves ... riots outside a Norwegian NATO base in Afghanistan

Message Unit 7 - an example of patriotized history

In both cases, in story after story of the protesters' "violence", a US project of incomparable violence and aggression was going on at the very time, and in many of them it also turns out that it was the US-led forces that were by far the most violent, shooting at protesters.
It is the protesters who have been so violent this past week and after the Koran-in-toilet story.

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Last year Newsweek printed an allegation about mistreatment of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base .... The result was rioting and violence on a scale similar to the rioting and violence of the past week.

Message Unit 8 - an example of patriotized history

The US just conquered several countries and killed a hundred thousand people. It rules several other countries and kills any of the citizens who don't at least pretend to submit. It has a long history of doing the same thing all over the world. It has taken over scores of countries and killed millions of people in countries that weren't attacking anyone throughout the twentieth century, which it began by killing 300,000 Filipinos to take over their country. It killed over a million Vietnamese. It killed hundreds of thousands of people all over Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It set up horror regimes in South Vietnam, Iran, Greece, Chile, Guatemala, Indonesia, and many other countries. These were holocaust zones where the new US-supported "sovereign" government combed the country targeting the citizens. The US is also the only country that routinely uses its own military forces to kill the citizens of other countries in their own homes all over the world. It also thinks that it has the right to rule over the people of other countries without their consent, and to decide which of them live and which of them die, and that this US tyranny is not tyranny, and in fact does not constitute a violation of those people's freedom or democracy at all. It has a limitlessly self-righteous and thus limitlessly expansionist and tyrannical ideology.
The Americans are the non-violent victims of their own naivete about how violent everybody else is.

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... naive, charming and sadly incorrect American theory of international relations that "the more we all learn about one another, the less we will fight."... And somehow, I've got a feeling that this new knowledge will be not the beginning of understanding but the inspiration for more violence.