I don’t think the Pope’s original comments have elicited nearly as much authentic rage as the images on TV would suggest. But I do think those driving these protests and whipping up anger know what they’re doing. The West wants to be loved. It can’t stand the idea that somebody — anybody — doesn’t like us. This is doubly so in Europe and perhaps triply so at the Vatican. So much of European — and American liberal — foreign policy is based on the idea that being disliked is an enormous indictment, a sign of serious moral failings on our part, rather than resentment, envy or scapegoating on the part of those fomenting anti-Americans. What have we done wrong to make you hate us so!? And so we apologize again and again. Anyone remember Bill Clinton’s global apology tour? The Jihadists must cackle at all of this, because it shows that the West can be rolled. I know the apologizers think they’re fostering a climate of reconcilliation and dialogue. But it seems obvious to me that our opponents simply pocket these apologies and say, “See: Even the Pope agrees with us” or “Behold: we have made the Americans admit they are wrong.”