by B. R. GOWANI
One of the terrorists fires at the officer at point-blank range. The attack took place day before yesterday and killed 12 people PHOTO/Daily Mail
Obama’s sanctions against North Korea
In the wake of threats and hacking of its emails, last December, the Sony Pictures decided to cancel the release of its film The Interview. It came under pressure from various circles to go ahead with the release and not to cave in because of the threats from North Korea, which was suspected behind the hacking. Even the President jumped in. Barack Obama said:
“I think [Sony] made a mistake.” “We cannot have a society where some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States.”
“That’s not what America’s about.” “Again, I’m sympathetic that Sony, as a private company, was worried about liabilities and this and that and the other. I wish they’d spoken to me first. I would have told them, ‘Do not get into a pattern in which you’re intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks.‘”
The Interview has a scene depicting the assassination of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The film had the blessings of the US State Department.
Is the State Department going to bless a movie which was going to show Obama’s, or for that matter, the head of the State Department’s (that is, John Kerry’s) head explode in air?
No. The chances of such a movie being made are almost nil. And if such a movie was made, it will not be made by Seth Rogen, George Clooney, or similar type of liberals who are hell bent on bringing revolutions in countries their government doesn’t like.
The FBI evidence linking North Korea to the hacking is not credible. However, the punishment to that country has been meted out as promised by Obama. The sanctions against that country has been expanded.
Sony did released the movie, though on a small scale, and made profit.
Attack on Charlie Hebdo office
The office of a French magazine Charlie Hebdo was attacked by three Islamic extremists in Paris resulting in the death of twelve people. The reason was the publishing of cartoons depicting Muhammad in a bad light. The attack was carried out with similar barbarity witnessed in other attacks in so many other places. For these hideous people, it is difficult to understand the difference between words and cartoons, and guns.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his views:
“… Today’s murders are part of a larger confrontation, not between civilizations – no – but between civilization itself and those who are opposed to a civilized world. The murderers dared proclaim “Charlie Hebdo is dead,” but … the freedom of expression that it represented is not able to be killed by this kind of act of terror….”
The State Department site also has a cartoon which shows a masked gunman under a caption “powerful” and a hand drawing a cartoon under a caption “more powerful.” It’s ironic. If such was the case, the writers opposing the inhumane and unjust US wars would have succeeded long ago in pacifying the US ruling class.
Obama punished North Korea on unproven charges. It’s always easy to go after weak opponents. How about punishing these Islamic monsters by encouraging the dominant print and electronic media in the US to publish and broadcast Muhammad’s cartoons and show solidarity with staff of the Charlie Hebdo. Now this will be an act of true courage and will provide moral support to those writers, cartoonists, and other artists who are thinking about doing that in order to counter the Islamic militants but are afraid to do so.
I know, I’m asking a giant monster to go after small monsters. What made me do that? It’s Obama’s love for the freedom of speech.
But I know, he is not going to do that because it will hurt people’s religious feelings, the diplomatic excuse.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com