Unfair apples-to-oranges comparison

Submitted by Dan Simon (United States), Mar 11, 2015 at 18:36

I don't think it's fair to compare the virulence of the most extreme partisans in the US with official Middle Eastern spokespeople. I'm fairly confident that high-level American politicians are generally far more measured and moderate in their pronouncements on Middle East politics than their counterparts in the region itself, and similarly, that even radical extremists in the US pale beside those in the Middle East in the virulence of their rhetoric. (The exception, of course, is discussion of American policy, where non-Americans tread lightly for fear of offending the US, whereas US politicians feel free to vent their spleens uninhibitedly with respect to their domestic partisan opponents.)

Sure, an American fanatic on behalf of one side of the Arab-Israeli conflict will occasionally seem more extreme than an urbane buttoned-down diplomat visiting the US from the region, but that's an apples-to-oranges comparison.

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