Why Do They Hate US? (part 1,498,764)

The May 9 edition of Newsweek reported that interrogators at Guantanamo placed Korans on toilets to rattle suspects, and in at least one case 'flushed a holy book down the toilet.'

Incensed Afghans have responded with rioting that has spread across four provinces.

Meanwile, there is not much Western meida coverage of anti-US protests in Iraq, even though these have the blessing of Al-Sistani.

Al-Zaman/AFP/DPA: Shiite followers of Sistani in Karbala demonstrated on Monday, demanding that Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari distribute to the people their flour rations (the rations had been established under the oil for food program of the United Nations). They complained that this key foodstuff had not reached them for four months. They also demanded an end to corruption and bribe-taking by the police. They further insisted that a timetable be set for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

UPDATE: Condi Rice respons to the Afghan riots - which have now killed seven people - by telling all Muslims to renounce violence. OK... You invade a country without justification, kill 100,000 or more of its citizens, trample on human rights and the Geneva Convention, then tell people to renounce violence. Right...

Reminds me of this Steve Bell cartoon. When are these people going to get the message?

UPDATE 2: Incisive analysis from the (supposedly tres left wing) New York Times:

The United States military is still trying to analyze whether the violence is [1]politically driven, [2]instigated by outsiders or [3]a sign of general public frustration with the slow pace of reconstruction in the country, said a spokesman, Col. James Yonts. Local governors might also [4]be encouraging protests against the central government and its American backers to improve their own standing ahead of parliamentary elections in September, said Jandad SpinGhar, head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Jalalabad.

So that's it - a choice of four options. How about [5] Afghans and Pakistanis might be sick and tired of a US government that supports the militant fools running their countries and dragging them into military action against fellow Muslims, outraged by the US lies about Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, and ready to demand something like real Democracy, not just the phoney White House version of it centralized in heavily fortified downtown Islamabad and Karachi.