Like this was the first time that the US did anything to hurt its image in the Arab world. Give me a break. The reason they're rioting isn't because of Newsweek - hell, even their own general said the riots were unrelated to Newsweek (funny how Bush has suddenly forgotten this nice little fact). From the NYT:
Mr. McClellan and other administration officials blamed the Newsweek article for setting off the anti-American violence that swept Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The report had real consequences," Mr. McClellan said. "People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged."The riots are the result of 5 years of neglect and disdain from an administration of liars who launched a war based on a lie, killing thousand of their and our citizens. Then Bush decided to start torturing innocent Muslims in Cuba and Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan. Gee, I'll bet none of that has anything to do with the riots.
But only a few days earlier, in a briefing on Thursday, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said that the senior commander in Afghanistan believed the protests had stemmed from that country's reconciliation process.
"He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine," General Myers said.
