The Tucson Shootings: A German Perspective

I can usually find an interesting article or two in the Atlantic Times. (In fact, the story about Hitler’s plot to bomb New York is quite intriguing.) The front-page column by co-editor in chief Peter H. Koepf, however, is not one of them. Entitled “Reaping the whirlwind: How Germans view the assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords,” Koepf writes:

The verdict was pronounced just as quickly in Germany as it was in the US: Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Movement are morally responsible for the shooting of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Putting political opponents in the crosshairs and confusing political discourse with war prepares the ground ideologically for the kind of outrage carried out by Jared Loughner – whether he was politically motivated or mentally disturbed.

Does Koepf know the “verdict,” at least according to a CBS poll, is that 57 percent of Americans say the “harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting” while a mere 32 percent believe it did? And that our own president agrees that a lack of civility “did not” cause the tragedy? And is Koepf aware that Loughner is without doubt mentally disturbed and had targeted Giffords since 2007—before Obama, the health care debate, Sarah Palin, and the Tea Party? Or that Loughner’s few friends have told the media that he was in no way political?