What do Muslims tossing Molotov cocktails at the Austrian embassy because of a Danish cartoon have in common with Americans who called for an invasion of Iraq because of 9/11?

Great comparison Dan. The Iranians who are lashing out blindly and attacking an Austrian embassy over what a Danish paper did are an irrational mob.

As for Bush and his counselors the situation is quite different. They actually manipulated public opinion coldly and deliberately in order to enflame popular support for a much worse, far more unjust and imprudent attack then a mob lobbing molotov cocktails at an embassy.

Btw, anyone notice that we seem to now and again be making use of that old tactic of carpet bombing in Iraq, like Bush Sr. and Powell did in GWI? It is completely unconscionable to destroy civilian populations in such a manner but I suppose its nothing new from the government (and incidentally the party) that gave us Fredericksburg.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051205fa_fact

Was Burnside a Republican?

Yes, he was Homer. But I was referring to the overall command structure for the war, as in Lincoln and the Republican Congress.

Lincoln was not responsible for Burnside's suicidal tendencies.

He was responsible for the conduct of the war, as well as the decision to execute it.

Lincoln didn't care for justice he was a pragmatic man who cared for victories, hence his esteem of Grant and Sherman once they turned the war in the North's favor. Fredricksburg was just the beginning of the use of terror as an accepted battle practice for the modern American government, it continued throughout the rest of the war (Sherman's march to the sea, e.g.).