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Karen Huge (not!).

Controversy May Affect U.S. Efforts

The outrage over cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad poses a challenge for the United States at a time when the Bush administration is investing greater resources to reach out to the Muslim world, U.S. officials said yesterday.

President Bush's proposed budget, announced Monday, would significantly boost cultural exchanges in the Muslim world and would eliminate English-language Voice of America broadcasts to most of the world in order to bolster programming in the Middle East.

These idiots think they can make Muslim anger go away by saying magic words about "freeance and peance," as illustrated by the appointment of clueless Karen Hughes as Goodwill Ambassador to Benighted Brown People. Perhaps if we spent less time and money on blowing up their homes and families and more on rebuilding what we've blown up, there'd be a little less animosity. This doesn't justify the violent response to the cartoon in question, but it does highlight the fundamental challenge the West faces in the Middle East--mending fences in a minefield of your own creation can be hazardous work.

Technorati Tags: Muslim, anger, cartoon, propaganda, VoA