CDR Salamander

...by letting the Europeans take the lead with the Iranian negotiations, and keeping nearly silent about the cartoon hysteria, the United States essentially has told the Europeans, “Here is the sort of restrained sober and judicious global diplomacy that you so welcome.”

Because of slated troop withdrawals from European bases, and a new American weariness with the old anti-Americanism, some Europeans are beginning to recoil at the idea that they might well be on their own—and in a war against fanatical enemies that they have appeased and without rational friends that they have estranged.

In response, we may see less of the anti-American rhetoric and a return to the Cold War slogans of a “strong Atlantic Alliance” and “an essential Nato,” as nuclear jihadists replace the fear of 300 Soviet divisions.

So now Europe is being thrust right into the middle of the so-called war against Islamic fascism. Once threatened, it will either react with a newly acquired Churchillian maturity to protect its civilization, or cave, in hopes that even more Chamberlain-type appeasement will satisfy the Islamists.

It should be a fascinating spring ahead.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 08:18

What country today has half of its population under the age of 15? Italy has 14 per cent, the UK 18 per cent, Australia 20 per cent - and Saudi Arabia has 39 per cent, Pakistan 40 per cent and Yemen 47 per cent. Little Yemen, like little Britain 200 years ago, will send its surplus youth around the world - one way or another.
...

Seventeen European nations are now at what demographers call "lowest-low" fertility - 1.3 births per woman, the point at which you're so far down the death spiral you can't pull out.

In theory, those countries will find their population halving every 40 years or so. In practice, it will be quicker than that, as the savvier youngsters figure there's no point sticking around a country that's turned into one big undertaker's waiting room: not every pimply burger flipper is going to want to work himself into the ground to pay for new shuffleboard courts at the old folks' home.
...

Europe is bicultural: a fading elderly population yielding to a young surging Islam. ...
The remorseless transformation of Eutopia into Eurabia is already prompting the Dutch to abandon their country in record numbers, for Canada and New Zealand.
...

In the '70s and '80, Muslims had children - those self-detonating Islamists in London and Gaza and Bali are a literal baby boom - while westerners took all those silly books about overpopulation seriously. A people that won't multiply can't go forth or go anywhere. Those who do will shape the world we live in.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:36

SPIEGEL: Then why did your Swedish colleague Goran Persson criticize you and say he would have never underestimated such a situation?

Fogh Rasmussen: First, he is not in my situation. Second, I would never get involved in any domestic issue in Sweden. And third, I am especially honored to be attacked by the Swedish Social Democrats -- it is a sign that our policies are the correct ones.

On February 10, in Oslo, came a dramatic capitulation that seemed a classic case of sharia in action. For days, Velbjorn Selbekk, editor of the tiny Christian periodical Magazinet – the first publication to reprint the now-famous Muhammed cartoons from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten – had firmly resisted pressure by Muslim extremists (who made death threats) and by the Norwegian establishment (which urged him to give in). But then, on that morning – the day before a planned mass demonstration against the cartoons – Norway’s Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion, Bjarne Hakon Hanssen, hastily called a press conference at a major government office building in Oslo.

There, to the astonishment of his supporters, Selbekk issued an abject apology for reprinting the cartoons. At his side, accepting his act of contrition on behalf of 46 Muslim organizations and asking that all threats now be withdrawn, was Mohammed Hamdan, head of Norway’s Islamic Council. In attendance were members of the Norwegian cabinet and the largest assemblage of imams in Norway’s history. It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom: the dhimmi prostrating himself before the Muslim leader, and the leader pardoning him – and, for good measure, declaring Selbekk to be henceforth under his protection, as if it were he, Hamdan, and not the Norwegian police, that held in his hands the security of citizens in Norway.

Selbekk, in his prepared remarks, leaned heavily on the usual soothing multicultural language, including the word “understanding.” It was clear that Selbekk had indeed come to an understanding: he understood that if he didn’t relent, he risked physical harm. He also spoke of “respect” – a word that in this context must surely have been understood by the imams to refer not to a volitional regard for a social equal but to the obligatory deference of a repentant infidel. As for Handam, he noted that “Selbekk has children the same age as my own. I want my children and his children to grow up together, live together in peace, and be friends.”Selbekk’s family, too, had been under threa. This was rather chilling, given that Selbekk’s family, too, had been under threat.

Jozias van Aartsen, the leader of the Dutch Liberal Party (VVD) which is the coalition partner of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian-Democrat Party (CDA) in the Dutch government, is angry with Javier Solana. Mr van Aartsen demands that the Dutch Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs both reprimand Mr Solana. The latter, a Spanish Socialist who is the EU Foreign Policy Coordinator, recently signed a common statement with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The EU-UN-OIC statement said: “We understand the deep hurt and widespread indignation felt in the Muslim world. The freedom of the press, which entails responsibility and discretion, should respect the beliefs and tenets of all religions.”
...
Meanwhile, Mr Solana continues his appeasement visit to the Middle East. On Wednesday he met Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. The EU Foreign Policy Coordinator told the press that they discussed measures to ensure that “religious symbols can be protected.” He said: “Such steps could materialise through various mechanisms, maybe inside the new human rights commission created in the UN.”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:25

It seems the issue of cartoons is much in the news these days. As a devout moderate Muslim, I was just recently portrayed in the local Muslim newspaper, Arizona Muslim Voice, as a ravenous dog — on the leash of our state newspaper, and devouring an imam.

Despite the fact that being portrayed as a dog is profoundly offensive if not downright hateful in our Middle Eastern culture, there was hardly a ripple of outrage in the local Muslim community. It seems that in the local Muslim community it's all right to make a vilifying cartoon of me, a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander and medical officer, but certainly not one of bin Laden or al-Zawahiri. I have yet to see them publish one cartoon against the enemies of America in this so-called Muslim newspaper.

Dreams are a funny thing. For example, it is a dream for me that I may one day make the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. But the very thought of living there, makes me feel all hollow inside. Is that not a peculiar thing — that the holiest place for me to visit would not be a holy place for me to live.

That is because the hajj is a dream of mine, a pillar of my faith, but living there would be my reality. The difference between a dream that is fleeting and one that is real always comes down to the question of free will. If I would live there, I would not be free and no devotion that is coerced can ever be true.

That is why my first allegiance is to this country. Without its freedoms and protections, my faith would be something much smaller. That is also why my dream has always been one of a pluralistic, democratic society where all religions and people can feel welcome. Islamists, from the radical to the moderate, would argue that in their dream the will of the majority and the Islamic state become one. What instilled my intense love for the United States from a young age was that our democracy has a Bill of Rights that upholds minorities, prevents oppression by the majority, and keeps religious scripture out of government — the antithesis of Islamism.

The Muslim mobs we see inflamed are not al-Qaeda, but they are enraged Islamists driven by a fear of losing the ideological world war to the West. They fear the West, which honors the individual first and the community second — put another way, America first, and the ummah second. They fear more than anything having to compete in a non-theological legislature by the legal merit of the logic of their principles, rather than from behind the corrupt cloak of their theological monopoly on sharia.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:52

America's major NATO allies have cut military manpower and defense funds as a share of their economies since the September 11 attacks, in sharp contrast with the United States, which embarked on deficit spending to boost arms outlays to fight global terrorists.

More telling is the share of each countries' gross domestic product (GDP) that is devoted to defense expenditures. The U.S. share has gone from 3 percent to 3.7 percent since September 11, 2001, while other NATO nations collectively have dipped from 2.02 percent to 1.8 percent, according to the Pentagon. Twelve years ago, NATO, excluding the United States, devoted 2.5 percent of GDP to defense.

British Defense Minister John Reid sees NATO at a testing point.
"If we're going to make sure that NATO is a true force in the world, then we Europeans have to step up to the mark and make sure that we are contributing not only towards the discussions in NATO, which are very important, but also the resources, the types of troops that are necessary for today's world," Mr. Reid said.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:46

France and the European Union's top foreign policy official , Javier Solana, want to send German troops to the Congo to cut the risk of civil war in the run-up to elections. But the German government opposes the risky mission.

...the EU's two rapid reaction forces can only be deployed under limited conditions. A joint Spanish-Italian force specializes in amphibian invasions. The second "Battle Group" consists of 1,500 Germans -- mainly paratroopers -- and 4 Frenchmen working at the group's main headquarters.

Berlin was horrified at the prospect of German troops being placed into situations where they could end up firing at child soldiers. According to an internal Defense Ministry memo, "prominent involvement," possibly with Germany acting as the lead nation in the EU mission, was "not in Germany's interest."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:47

With few exceptions, the states [in the Muslim world] are marked by poverty, ignorance, and stagnation. It is full of discontent and frustration, yet alive with consciousness of its inferiority and with determination to achieve some kind of betterment.

Two basic urges meet head-on in this area, and conflict is inherent in this collision of interests. These urges reveal themselves in the daily news accounts of killings and terrorism, of pressure groups in opposition, and of raw nationalism and naked expansionism masquerading as diplomatic maneuvers.

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property‹either as a child, a wife, or a concubine‹must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science‹the science against which it had vainly struggled‹the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:26

•  70 man crew...and everyone, except for the CO (and XO I presume) will
  hold dual billets. CMC will also stand bridge watches and be qualified in
  Navigation. The supposed hook for the Dixie cups, is that they will make it
  up the promotion list to Chief much much quicker...yeah, pull the other one.

•  The crew will still have to pull PMS and 3M, but other tasks (like
  corrosion control, maintaining fittings) will all be done by "qualified
  technicians (people like me, I suspect). Of course, this will mean higher
  maintenance costs, especially since the Navy intends to dog the hell out of
  these ships, utilizing a Blue/Gold concept.

•  The hull is HSLA-80 steel. I don't know if this is the same thing as
  HY-80. If it is, again, more costs for welding. Hull thickness (except for
  the bow, keel, plating around rudder, shafts will be 1/4". Superstructure is
  Aluminum, with a bi-metallic welded datacouple (just like the Perrys). I
  figure about 5 years into the life of these boats, from the time they start
  lighting off the plant, we'll start seeing significant corrosion repairs.
  The article also talked about some new high dollar welding process,
  supposedly to provide high-quality welds with minimal distortion. I suspect
  they were talking about a process I'm familiar with. Of course, one of the
  photos they used, showed a welder grinding a weld...something you never do,
  if the weld is sat. (He was looking in Surface Warfare magazine) And I thought the Navy bragged when they came out with
  the Burke, "We learned our lesson with aluminum, never again!" And here they
  are again.

•  HSLA-80 is a real crappy material.  Very prone to cracking in stress areas. We've gone through some pain dealing
  with it, cutting out whole sections of it and replacing it with DH-36, which
  is an excellent high-yield, high stress-point material. The Navy did (at
  least from the deckplate view of someone who has been working on ships since
  the days of the Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Shangr-la, and cruisers like the
  Dale) a real crappy job of design oversight. .... I'll predict right now, that before those Little Crappy
  Ships get 3 years old, they'll start having material issues...serious
  problems with the aluminum by 8, maybe 5 depending on thickness. 

Labels: LCS, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:03

Shame on those papers and TV channels who lacked the courage to show their readers the caricatures in The Cartoon Affair. These intellectuals live off free speech but they accept censorship. They hide their mediocrity of mind behind noble-sounding terms such as ‘responsibility’ and ‘sensitivity’.

Shame on those politicians who stated that publishing and re-publishing the drawings was ‘unnecessary’, ‘insensitive’, ‘disrespectful’ and ‘wrong’. I am of the opinion that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark acted correctly when he refused to meet with representatives of tyrannical regimes who demanded from him that he limit the powers of the press. Today we should stand by him morally and materially. He is an example to all other European leaders. I wish my prime minister had Rasmussen’s guts.

Shame on those European companies in the Middle East that advertised “we are not Danish” or “we don’t sell Danish products”. This is cowardice. Nestle chocolates will never taste the same after this, will they? The EU member states should compensate Danish companies for the damage they have suffered from boycotts.

Liberty does not come cheap. A few million Euros is worth paying for the defence of free speech.
...
The issue is not about race, colour or heritage. It is a conflict of ideas, which transcend borders and races.

Why me? I am a dissident, like those from the Eastern side of this city who defected to the West. I too defected to the West. I was born in Somalia, and grew up in Saudi Arabic and Kenya. I used to be faithful to the guidelines laid down by the prophet Muhammad. Like the thousands demonstrating against the Danish drawings, I used to hold the view that Muhammad was perfect -- the only source of, and indeed, the criterion between good and bad. In 1989 when Khomeini called for Salman Rushdie to be killed for insulting Muhammad, I thought he was right. Now I don’t.

I think that the prophet was wrong to have placed himself and his ideas above critical thought.

I think that the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have subordinated women to men.

I think that the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have decreed that gays be murdered.

I think that the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have said that apostates must be killed.

He was wrong in saying that adulterers should be flogged and stoned, and the hands of thieves should be cut off.

He was wrong in saying that those who die in the cause of Allah will be rewarded with paradise.

He was wrong in claiming that a proper society could be built only on his ideas.

The prophet did and said good things. He encouraged charity to others. But I wish to defend the position that he was also disrespectful and insensitive to those who disagreed with him.

I think it is right to make critical drawings and films of Muhammad. It is necessary to write books on him in order to educate ordinary citizens on Muhammad.

I do not seek to offend religious sentiment, but I will not submit to tyranny. Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad’s teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission.

I am not the only dissident in Islam. There are more like me here in the West. If they have no bodyguards they work under false identities to protect themselves from harm. But there are also others who refuse to conform: in Teheran, in Doha and Riyadh, in Amman and Cairo, in Khartoum and in Mogadishu, in Lahore and in Kabul.

The dissidents of Islamism, like the dissidents of communism, don’t have nuclear bombs or any other weapons. We have no money from oil like the Saudis. We will not burn embassies and flags. We refuse to get carried away in a frenzy of collective violence. In number we are too small and too scattered to become a collective of anything. In electoral terms here in the west we are practically useless.

" The West has to be able to define itself, show its strength, also when it comes to cultural and intellectual matters and be able to show that there are limits to what is acceptable to us. At the same time we can entertain a strong relationship with Islamic countries. Such an approach will contain the influence of Islam and it will strengthen the power and influence of Islamic nations that strive to separate church and state. It will curtail political adventurism in both western and Islamic countries "

[Pim Fortuyn, Against the Islamization of our Culture, 1997]

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:07

Saturn's moon Mimas against the cool, blue backdrop of Saturn's northern hemisphere.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:36

By agreeing to a charter, "the press will give the Muslim world the message: we are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression, we can and we are ready to self-regulate that right," he said.

The Swedish government has moved to shut down the website of a far-right political party's newspaper over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The site's host, Levonline, pulled the plug on the website of the Swedish Democrats' SD-Kuriren newspaper after consulting with the government.

It is believed to be the first time a Western government has intervened to block a publication in the growing row.
...
His website briefly posted a picture showing Muhammad from the rear, looking into a mirror, with his eyes blacked out - an image he said was about self-censorship.
...
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds described Kuriren's move as "a provocation" by "a small group of extremists".

"I will defend freedom of the press no matter what the circumstances, but I strongly condemn the provocation by SD-Kuriren. It displays a complete lack of respect," she said in a statement.

"Readers were well served... without publishing the cartoons," said a Wall Street Journal spokesman. "CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons in respect for Islam," reported the cable network. On behalf of the BBC, which did show some of the cartoons on the air, a news editor subsequently apologized, adding: "We've taken a decision not to go further... in order not to gratuitously offend the significant number" of Muslim viewers worldwide. Left unmentioned is the understanding (editorial judgement?) that "gratuitous offense" leads to gratuitous violence. Hence, fear — not the inspiration of tolerance but of capitulation — and a condition of dhimmitude.

How far does it go? Worth noting, for example, is that on the BBC Web site, a religion page about Islam presents the angels and revelations of Islamic belief as historical fact, rather than spiritual conjecture (as is the case with its Christianity Web page); plus, it follows every mention of Mohammed with "(pbuh)," which means "peace be upon him"—"as if," writes Will Wyatt, former BBC chief executive, in a letter to the Times of London, "the corporation itself were Muslim."
...
So, how do you say solidarity in Danish? If we don't find out now, our future is more dhimmitude.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:27

This was their explanation for not printing the cartoons from yesterday's editorial:

The New York Times and much of the rest of the nation's news media have reported on the cartoons but refrained from showing them. That seems a reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words.

...Unless of course the religious symbol happens to be a Christian symbol?!!

From Times Watch today:

Just yesterday the Times wrote in an editorial on the Danish cartoons of Mohammad that “The New York Times and much of the rest of the nation's news media have reported on the cartoons but refrained from showing them. That seems a reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words.”

Apparently the Arts pages didn’t get the memo, because it runs a photo of Chris Ofili’s dung-clotted "Holy Virgin Mary" in Wednesday’s Arts section story by Michael Kimmelman, who calls the Danish cartoons "callous and feeble."

This is the most striking example yet of the double standard by the Times when it comes to art that offends religious sensibilities.

Peter Horrocks, the editor of TV News, said it had been a difficult dilemma.

"Obviously the BBC does not want to give offence to anyone on either side of this debate, so if people - whichever side of the argument they fall within - have taken offence, I am obviously concerned and apologise for that," he told NewsWatch.

"In reporting this story, we ourselves had to make a decision about whether we published the pictures in any form and inevitably that's made us part of the controversy.

Peter Horrocks
Peter Horrocks: Still images would be "excessively offensive"
"We've taken the view that still images that focus and linger on the offending cartoons would be excessively offensive so we haven't used those in our television news pieces.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:31

SPIEGEL: How long will the US be occupied by the operation in Iraq?

Jones: On the scope of things that we're doing, it would be reasonable to expect that it would take a long time, maybe a generation of officers ...

SPIEGEL: ... which means some 10 to 15 years ...

US General James Jones is the supreme NATO commander in Europe.
Zoom
AFP
US General James Jones is the supreme NATO commander in Europe.
Jones: ... yes, but does that mean you have to have 100,000 or 150,000 troops there all the time? Absolutely not. But nor does it mean that there's a day when you can just close the door and say, 'Thank you very much. That's it' like in Vietnam when we flew out on the last day. I think we'll eventually cut back to a mentoring process and there will be a tipping point when the Iraqi security forces will be sufficiently trained and will be adequate in numbers and less reliant on us.
...
SPIEGEL: The Germans have declined to participate in the Iraq war and they are only engaged in training Iraqi officers outside of the country. They will also not join the risky expansion of peacekeeping forces in southern Afghanistan. Are you disappointed?

Jones: I've learned in the three years I've been in this job that one has to be realistic. NATO is an alliance that works by consensus, but each nation can put its own application of what it wishes to do within that consensus. In Iraq we have a situation where barely half of the allies decided to put troops on the ground -- but they all voted for a mission. So, in their own way, they're doing what they can. I don't have negative feelings about anybody in the alliance on that score. Obviously, it would be wonderful if we could all have no caveats, no restrictions, but that's not the way things are. If we vote to do the job, we must go do it. Of course people are impatient and want quick results and victory with the bands playing, people throwing flowers, triumph after triumph, and a massive celebration within 90 days, and it's over. It's just that life isn't that simple.

SPIEGEL: The US is not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in many other places as well. Worldwide about 350,000 US soldiers are deployed right now. Has America still got the capacity to fight another war if necessary -- for instance if Iran became a serious crisis? And how long could the only superpower sustain another conflict?

Jones: That is a hypothetical question. The US is a big country with many resources and if it chooses to undertake certain things it usually finds a way to do it. But I'm not predicting another conflict. I think we have got enough on our hands right now.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:07

Dear Senator Obama:

I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere.
...
I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again. ..
Senator Lieberman and I, and many other members of this body, hope to exceed the public’s low expectations. We view this as an opportunity to bring transparency and accountability to the Congress, and, most importantly, to show the public that both parties will work together to address our failings.

As I noted, I initially believed you shared that goal. But I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party’s effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman Senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness. Again, I have been around long enough to appreciate that in politics the public interest isn’t always a priority for every one of us. Good luck to you, Senator.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:23

“A number of countries in Nato really ought to think more carefully about the nature of the world we are living in, and if they are comfortable with the very modest percentage of GDP that they are committing to defence,” Mr Rumsfeld told the Financial Times ahead of his arrival in Munich for an annual security conference.

The US has long complained about Europe not spending enough on defence, but Mr Rumsfeld said he was concerned that some countries were spending less than one per cent of gross domestic product on defence.

According to the US defense department, in 2000 the US spent just short of 3 percent of its GDP on defense. Only Turkey and Greece, less prosperous countries, spent proportionately more, at 5.71 and 4.92 percent respectively. Other NATO members devoted a much smaller share of their resources to defense. Canada, for example, spent 1.17 percent. An increase of military expenditures closer to 3 percent of GDP by other NATO members might enhance the collective power of Europe and Canada vis-a-vis the US, for the net effect of the current low spending levels is to magnify further the American influence within the Atlantic alliance. Since 9/11 this influence has only increased, as US defense spending is now variously estimated to stand at between 3.2 and 5 percent of GDP.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:51

University of Florida employees have to pledge that they're having sex with their domestic partners before qualifying for benefits under a new health care plan at the university.

In addition to declaring joint financial obligations, prospective enrollees must "have been in a non-platonic relationship for the preceding 12 months," according to the affidavit.

She said she was taken aback to find that employees would be required to swear to prior sexual activity, a standard not applied to married couples covered by UF's primary health care plan.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:55

Marine medics in Iraq are more likely to face serious injury or death than are the riflemen they’re working to help
...
officials show that the job of the combat medic, or Navy corpsman, is among the most dangerous in the war, in large part because of the situations they put themselves in.

“They’re literally moving in and moving out of the fight to get to their patients,” he said. “They’re among the first to go into battle, and they’re right in the middle of it.”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:50

France Soir originally said it had published the images in full to show "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society.

But late on Wednesday its owner, Raymond Lakah, said he had removed managing editor Jacques Lefranc "as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual".

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:15

We were extremely disappointed to see the editorial cartoon by Tom Toles on page B6 in the January 29th edition. Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon is beyond tasteless. Editorial cartoons are often designed to exaggerate issues--and your paper is obviously free to address any topic, including the state of readiness of today's Armed Forces. However, we believe you and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to your readers and your paper's reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defened this nation, and as a result, have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds...

...While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency to not make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices.

As the Joint Chiefs, it is rare that we all put our hand to one letter, but we cannot let this reprehensible cartoon go unanswered.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:16