The ‘democratic idealism’ of the US

“One recent Newsweek story alleged – or fabricated – that a single Koran was desecrated by an American soldier in Guantanamo Bay. The unsubstantiated rumor led to rioting and death in Afghanistan and general turmoil and rage across the Islamic world. Mullahs issued fatwas and the more lunatic even declared a ‘holy war’. What explains the unsubstantiated story and why the hysterical reaction?”

Victor Davis Hanson has the answer. It’s all due to “the increasing hatred of the United States and its policy of democratic idealism abroad”.

National Review, 20 May 2005