If reports are true, Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was one of four diplomats killed yesterday in a rocket strike in Benghazi. This is awful, calamitous, horrible news in a hundred different ways, not only for his family and for the Foreign Service in which he served so honorably, but when it comes to the most fundamental rule of relations between countries from time immemorial—which is that their emissaries are guaranteed safe passage and safe conduct when they travel on behalf of their own governments. We can presume Stevens and his colleagues were not killed by the Libyan government, because if that were the case, this would be nothing less than an act of war that required a response.
As we saw yesterday in Cairo, with the assault on the U.S. embassy there on the pretext of a cinematic offense against the Prophet, the United States has entered a new time of testing in the long war against Islamism—with assaults on official U.S. property and U.S. personnel. Such tests have always been highly problematic for us; before this becomes an occasion to blame Barack Obama’s weakness and vascillation, it’s worth remembering that the United States has never handled it well. In the 1960s, radicals attacking U.S. embassies became a kind of running joke. The joke ended in 1979 with the taking of the hostages in Iran, which was a state action in the guise of a radical private action.
But after yesterday, the test is Obama’s.
The strange spectacle of the dreadful initial response from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo—apologizing for an offense that the United States did not offer and that under any circumstances would not justify an attack—followed by a White House disavowal six hours later (“we didn’t clear it”) can be ascribed to the initial daze of a two-pronged attack that must have left everyone in shock. That lack of clarity must end today, or there will be more of this. Much more.
OK, but it was Obama's mideast policy that fostered in a change in governments across the region, so there is some more responsibility here than just a random embassy attack. n nAnd really, how much more like Jimmy Carter can he become, and have people still vote for him?
Obama wants this. He is an anti-western, anti-colonial president. His lack of support for Israel, his refusal to meet Netanyahu, is fuel for the fire of Islamic hatred in the M.E. He doesn't care how the US looks, or that someone died. He believes we deserve it.
I could not agree more with James Michael Yerian. Obama is an anti-colonial, Churchill hating, anti-imperialist whose ideas are grounded in the ideological legacy he inherited from Barack Obama, Sr. The initial, yet honest, but apologetic, obsequious response which the Obama administration has now recanted was really how the Obama administration truly feels about the nature of the relationship between the U.S. and the Middle East. We are the ones at fault and we are the cause of all the misery and violence that we now find manifesting itself in this area of the world. Consequently, we are the ones that should apologize for making Muslims unhappy.
Arab Spring turns into American Fall.
[to the tune of "Springtime for Hitler"] n nSpringtime, for Islam, and Mohammed, nWinter for Jesus and Jews, n….
But didn't the Libyans and Egyptians listen to the famous Obama Cairo speech? Perhaps they missed it. n nAnd Obama even pronounces Pahk-EEE-stun so authentically. n nAnd he helped Libyan Al-Queida overthrow Gaddafi. n nAnd he refused to see Netanyahu later this month, while agreeing to see Morsi! n nThis must all be some misunderstanding.
Maybe if he gives Morsi an additional billion or two that would help. He can get a few more submarines to target Israel with. The 2 subs he just ordered are not enough, clearly.
I am expecting Obama to demand the prosecution of all Americans who besmirch the Prophet. A second term Obama will introduce some modern version of Yellow Stars.
State Department apologizes for First Amendment.r nWH says, no we do not.r nState Department says, yes we do.
Punishing people for blasphemy is saying: "Poor helpless God. He needs us to protect Him from having His feelings hurt." nNothing could be more blasphemous than outlawing or punishing blasphemy.
"The strange spectacle of the dreadful initial response from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo—apologizing for an offense that the United States did not offer and that under any circumstances would not justify an attack…" n nErm…that wasn't a response to the attacks, since it was sent out before either of them happened. Context matters.
Context matters for clarification of substance and intent. As for the intent of its issuance, one might have known that no amount of soothing assurances would or could have deterred a wild and barbarous Islamist mob, for whom the notorious video was apparently a pretext, from exacting vengeance for weakening al-Qai'da. As for substance, it is shamefully mealy-mouthed in any context that pits a U.S. citizen's freedom of speech against religious dogma or sensibility. That may partly explain why Obama chose to disavow it.
So far, this administration has displayed far less outrage over the killing of our diplomat than they did over a routine low level bureaucratic approval of a Jewish owned apartment project in an area of Jerusalem that everyone knows will remain part of Israel in final negotiations.
As Iowahawk says "this presidency started with an apology in Cairo & looks like its ending with an apology in Cairo."
There is nothing so fragrant to a Democrat than a torched American flag. Celebrations and high fives in the White House this morning.
The Arab street, and complicit governments, know President Obama won't really do much when we are attacked, and thus can attack and murder us with impunity. We seem to be helpless without a particular drone target. The administrations only recourse then, will be to shy away from the enormous significance of this attack and murder of our own. I feel a great sadness, and can only hope and pray that things may change with the election. Such a huge deal, which I suspect will only get worse. njoshuaallenonline.com
wtf,do they mean, the WH did not clear an international statement ??? who are they trying to fool ?? they would throw out an apology, and pretend that it did not come from them is just like how Obama operates…just like how he say that there was no LEAK of sensivitve info.coming from the WH, when most of the info,. are classifed….STOP LYING BARACK !!!
The Arab street, and complicit governments, know President Obama won't really do much when we are attacked, and thus can attack and murder us with impunity. We seem to be helpless without a particular drone target. The administrations only recourse then, will be to shy away from the enormous significance of this attack and murder of our own. I feel a great sadness, and can only hope and pray that things may change with the election. Such a huge deal, which I suspect will only get worse. njoshuaallenonline.com