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August 9, 2005
Juan Cole, Rat Bastard
Is it just me, or is Juan Cole not only the most consistently wrong analyst on events in Iraq, but also among the most offensive?
Was American journalist Steve Vincent killed in Basra as part of an honor killing? He was romantically involved with his Iraqi interpreter, who was shot 4 times. If her clan thought she was shaming them by appearing to be having an affair outside wedlock with an American male, they might well have decided to end it. In Mediterranean culture, a man's honor tends to be wrought up with his ability to protect his womenfolk from seduction by strange men. Where a woman of the family sleeps around, it brings enormous shame on her father, brothers and cousins, and it is not unknown for them to kill her. These sentiments and this sort of behavior tend to be rural and to hold among the uneducated, but are not unknown in urban areas. Vincent did not know anything serious about Middle Eastern culture and was aggressive about criticizing what he could see of it on the surface, and if he was behaving in the way the Telegraph article describes, he was acting in an extremely dangerous manner.
(hat tip: Michael Totten at InstaPundit)
UPDATE: Here are Steven Vincent's widow's thoughts.
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Comments
I really hate to defend Cole, but he might have a point. I would not expect local Muslims, Shiite or Sunni, to take kindly to it if Vincent was physically involved with a local woman. That it is none of their business is beside the point. As a rather conspicuous figure in the local scene, he would have been taking a risk.
Posted by: Morenuancedthanyou at August 9, 2005 7:39 PM