Pundits and many in the foreign policy establishment are slamming Mitt Romney today for taking issue with Obama administration statements about attacks on U.S. diplomats and embassies in Libya and Egypt. Their assumption is that in the wake of a tragedy involving the deaths of U.S. personnel, Romney should have held his tongue rather than wading into the controversy and, in the opinion of those critical of his stance, politicizing something that is beyond politics. For some liberals, this will not just reinforce the message of the Democratic National Convention that Romney is not qualified to speak on foreign policy. They hope this will be a turning point in which a close race will turn into a cakewalk for President Obama.
It remains to be seen whether they will turn out to be right. In his statement at the White House this morning, the president sounded and looked presidential when he eulogized Ambassador Chris Stevens and the other Americans. Presidents are at their best when they play commander-in-chief, but the idea that the administration’s mistakes should be treated as out of bounds for Romney is absurd. Contrary to the Democrats’ talking points, President Obama’s foreign policy is a disaster in the making. Though he must be careful, Romney would be a fool to sit by quietly and allow these events to pass without comment, as Islamists rampage in Egypt and Libya while the president snubs Israel and allows Iran to drift toward a nuclear weapon without a serious effort to stop it.
It may well be that the initial statement made by Romney last night was issued on the assumption that the shameful apology issued by the U.S. embassy in Cairo after, rather than before, the attack on the compound. But the embassy stuck by the statement and thus showed that criticism of the apology was justified. Either way, it still reflected the moral equivalence and willingness to kowtow to Islamist sensibilities and that has been at the core of this administration’s policies in the Middle East.
The willingness of Secretary of State Clinton to condemn a foolish independent film critical of Islam that is supposedly the reason why Americans are being attacked, before speaking of the outrage against U.S. facilities and personnel, was similarly ill-considered and deserved Romney’s riposte. While the president’s statement today was better, Romney still needs to point out that the administration’s desire to appease and conciliate the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt while refusing to meet the prime minister of Israel or to set red lines on Iran is the product of a mindset that has ill served America’s best interests.
Most Americans are inclined to unite around the government and the president in times of crisis. These attacks, coming as they did on 9/11, were acts of war against the United States. The responsibility for responding to such attacks belongs to the president and it is to be hoped that the administration will react in such a manner as to ensure such actions will not be repeated.
But yesterday’s apologies, as well as those that President Obama has issued before this–such as his June 2009 Cairo speech–are part of the problem that set these events in motion. Romney is right that Obama has sent some mixed signals to the world on the defense of American values and has given a measured rather than a knee-jerk bellicose response. If Americans want a better choice on foreign policy, then this is exactly the time for Romney to be speaking up and giving it to them.
This happened because some a–h–o–l–e yelled fire in a crowded theatre n
No, this happened because of radical Islam. When gays and the PC police targeted Chick fil a this summer, protesters peacefully joined in support of Chick fil a by patronizing their restaurants. That was a proper and peaceful response to something one disagrees with. Your statement suggests that there is at least some justification for the violence. There is not.
Was Terry Jones involved in this film? LOL
CNN is now reporting that this was a coordinated attack by Al Qaeda and that the protest was just a diversion. It is also being reported that marines were not stationed at the compound and that Libian security did not resist the armed "protesters".Therefore, this was an assasination of an American Ambassador and had nothing to do with the film. The last time an American Ambassador was killed ws 1979. I'm sure BHO is "outraged". I just hope America is outraged on November 6th.
The assassination is awful and the perpetrators must be brought to justice, and based upon the President's track record they will be. This isn't about a movie, its about America's continued commitment to eliminating Al Qaeda's leadership one by one – another one bit the dust yesterday. America will on November 6 show its outrage at the Republicans who are trying to politicize our foreign policy. n
Therefore, this was an assassinationI think Iu2019ll wait to evaluate that conclusion for a bit.
Based on the current news reports, the only conclusion to wait for is: by whom?
It seems thatu2019s the part we never get to,whou2019s actually behind a political assassination?
Right, and that rape happened because a pretty girl was wearing a low cut dress and red shoes.
Way to show how racist you are. Why not hold Muslims accountable for their behavior unless you think they are all ignorant brown people who are too stupid to make moral distinctions. n nAlso, making fun of Islam is not shouting fire, you ignoramous. It is rational, moral and ethical to flee a burning building. It is immoral, irratinal and unethical to kill people because someone else said something about your religion. The fact that you cannot grasp this distinction shows how stupif you and your political views are.
The movie was hate speech(see Terry Jones)and it was filmed with the INTENT to provoke violence. The people who promoted that film committed major felonies.
So now blasphemy is a major felony? Who knew that electing Obama would bring in a theocracy? n nYou racists still think that Muslims are not responsible for their actions. If you call them names and insult Islam they MUST go and kill uninvolved people. You are a racist. n and a bigot. On top of that you are also a coward who is frightened of muslims. We all know you would never call for the criminal prosecution of anyone insutling Judaism or Christianity. The only differnce is that you are afraid of Muslims. How vile and pathetic you and your ilk are. n nAnd thanks for confirming what we all already knew – that progressives like you and Obama have no respect for the bill of rights. You are a fascist thug. Our actual U.S. government through the NEA paid to have an artist put a crucifix with christ on it in a jar of piss. By your definition should people be jailed or is hate speech only allocated for one religion? Or, maybe you think Christians should start killing their critics to get some respect by cowards like you? n nShame on you.
racist racist. Bigot coward. afraid vile and pathetic progressive fascist thug. Cowards So Iu2019m a double racist,a vile pathetic coward that is afraid & a facist thug cowardly progressive. LOL You nailed it. I guess you might not be interested in my interpretation of Serranou2019s u201cPiss-Christu201d LOL
Stop having us hold our breath. How widely applied do you want our new blasphemy laws to apply?
Stop deploying that " Muslim= brown people "garbage that allows the charge of racism to me made against anyone who criticizes Islam. I live in an area with plenty of Palestinians and Turks, and I can tell you that these people are Caucasians, many with blue eyes. Yes, there are many Muslims with darker skin as it's a world-wide religion, but the same goes for Christians.
Romney is rightfully going to be taken out to the woodshed on this. Only question is how soon he turns around and backs down, and whether it is even possible to undo the damage. r nr nThis is his 3am phone call and he started yelling at the receiver before even hearing what the caller was trying to tell him.
B.S. Obama's stater department owns Libya. The apology is of a piece with Obama's past behavior. As was pointed out by someone else – this administration started with an apology in Cairo and is ending with one as well. n nObama is worse than Carter. n nNovember is going to see this shyster and you morons covering for him tasting defeat. Loser.
Carter mediated a peace treaty between our strongest ally in the middle east and its most persistent enemy. He did so with a clumsy bias against our ally, and nearly killed the deal thru his own stupididty, but the treaty did get signed, and it was the first treaty in history between our ally and any of its enemies. n nObama helped depose the leader of the nation who signed that treaty, and stood by encouragingly as the nation's new leader promised to rip that treaty up. Then he encouraged the new leader to violate that treaty (tanks in the Sinai) and gave him money for submarines to use against our ally. n nObama is much worse. Carter was motivated by hatred of Jews but did not accomplish nearly the same damage as Obama.
"If Americans want a better choice on foreign policy, then this is exactly the time for Romney to be speaking up and giving it to them." n nThat statement is precisely right. Our foreign policy is in a shambles because Mr. Obama sends the wrong message to our friends ("I've got your back" to Israel when he obviously means you're on your own, don't call me) and the wrong message to our enemies ("I'll have more flexibility after the election" to the Russians). He tells the Islamic world that America is wrong, and thus our values and freedoms are wrong and non universal, and we have acted poorly which tells them that they are right and justified to attack Americans and our interests in foreign lands. n nThis is a foreign policy disaster and it's incumbent on our executive branch to act in America's best interests. Mr. Obama has not done so, and it's totally appropriate for anyone seeking the White House to let Americans know how he would act in these hideous circumstances. Mr. Romney has a duty to respond so voters can compare what he would do with what the incumbent is doing. n nAnd, oh by the way, does anyone remember when Mr. Obama waded in on local issues like the Boston Police Department, or the Trayvor Martin shooting? These were issues well outside the scope of our executive branch yet Mr. Obama, to score racial political points, had no compunction about commenting. n nFor the democratic campaign to comment on Mr. Romney's statements is hypocrisy at its worst.
Is Terry Jones involved with this fim? This is getting crazier & crazier.
I read that he's promoting it, whatever that means. If you look at the trailer on Youtube you will see that it is a cheap and comical cartoon-like production. It's like a bad Saturday Night Live skit and not worthy of notice from any serious person.
Lets just say that if you watch it there's ten minutes (nobody can watch more) of your life you'll never get back. Grossly offensive and total junk. n
not worthy of notice from any serious person.So those people that killed our people werenu2019t serious enough for you
Good point. Instead of "any serious person," let's make that "any intelligent person capable of serious thought". n nBy the way, you might want to familiarize yourself with a fallacy called 'equivocation', because you committed it by deliberately using a different definition of "serious" than Mazeld when you responded to Mazeld's post. Do you ever get tired of playing childish games when matters of life and death are concerned?
If you walk in a room where everyone is holding black banners,and Kalisnikovs,donu2019t shout u201cIslam is for idiotsu201d.
Good practical advice but bad law. Was Jones in that room, by the way? Was the maker of the video?
Coward. People fought and died so that you could say whatever you wanted about a religion. Shame on you for selling their sacrifices out so cheaply. You and Obama think you can molify someone who will kill you bnecause someone else said something hurtful. So you are both a coward and a fool.
The irony is that Iu2019m one of the few people that comment here that has put on a US Army uniform,six years 1967-1973, RA16995434,and tell me about your military service LOL
Thanks for your service. n nYou are still a coward who advocates knuckling under to islamic intimidation. But, if you also want blasphemy laws to protect Christian and Jewish, etc. sensibilities I will retract the accusation and merely think you fool willing to trade away hard won freedoms for the mere notion of security. n nJust as a side note, I have been shot at but was not in uniform. Just tried to stop some thugs stealing a van in Atlantic City more than ten years back. Can I call you chickenhawk anytime the subject of crime comes up since I have this on my resume? If I advocate throwing away all our property rights to keep street criminals appeased am I immune from being called a coward since I once intervened in a crime? n nYou want to shut people up by either calling them chicken hawks, blasphemers, or I am sure, racists. All in pursuit of partisan advantage. Shame on you.
I will second the thank you for your service. Judging from the time period, it explains why you are still stuck in the Viet Nam War mode. As one of the people who demonstrated to bring you home, I will say that I realized several decades later how wrong I was.
Donu2019t thank me,I was drafted originally,and anytime you want to discuss the problem of ChickenHawkism among todays u201cWar Loversu201d,Iu2019m your guy. Whatu2019s your opinion of u201cCatch 22u201d as an antiwar novel? LOL
I thoyught of Catch 22 more as being anti-bureacracy in general and anti-military in specifc than as anti-war. It was much more compelling when I was 20 than it would be today. Like any human endeavor, war is conducted by humans who by definition are fallible. n nFor a thought provoking defense of the military with all its foibles, try re-reading Caine Mutiny. For the proposition that there are some things even worse than war, try War and Remembrance.
Guess what – we don't support blasphemy laws. If we did Obama should have been prosecuted for calling religious people "bitter clingers". Stop distracting everyone from the fact that the Obama administration allowed succesful attacks on our embassies on 9/11 and then actually apologized to our atackers. It is amazing how Obama is somehow an empty chair at these events for you. POwerless and vacantly held to no accountability. n nCertainly he shouldn';t be attending intelligence briefings instead of going o nthe only type of media he does these days (I refer to his appearance on the radio show of the pimp with the limp). Romney took questions at his press conference. Obama not so much. But suckers like you are happy to carry his water. You probably do want blasphemy laws – you wouold attempt to sue Fox news for besmirching your deal leader. n nObama is soooo going to lose in November.
Obama is soooo going to lose in November.Donu2019t count your chickenhawks
Last week all you progressives were bragging about Obama killing Osama. This week you want to throw someone in jail for making a crappy and insulting movie. Can you please decide if you want to be craven appeasers or chest thumping braggarts over a set of values beyond the partisan needs of the moment?
I will refrain from criticizing Islam if they will agree to stop murdering infidels.
Obama is doing the I'm sorry, I'm not sorry hokey pokey, just like the DNC did the G-d Out, G-d nonsense at the DNC convention. Romney absolutely has every right to speak out against the obscene lack of leadership here in America and how America is now perceived abroad. nIf Romney didn't speak, he would be criticized for having no opinion / interest/ plan…take your pick. nI applaud having a grown up in the room.
The libs have blamed Bush for not preventing the 9/11 attacks on US soil. They praise Obama for "killing" bin Laden. All US Embassies are considered US soil. Therefore, Obama did not prevent yesterday's attack on US soil. Why not? Where were the Marines guarding the Embassy? Where were the blockades to prevent vehicles from approaching the Embassy? And the first statement issued by the Egyptian Embassy (prior to the Libya attack) was to apologize for something that apparently had nothing to do with the attack?
The Left is succeeding in making the narrative about Romney. It should be about the State Department for apologizing, and the CIA for being asleep at the switch.
The answer to the question posed in the title of this article is "hell no!"
To a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. To a neocon, every crisis is an opportunity tor war. You can hear the drumbeats now…and it worked so well in Iraq.
To a Democrat, every crisis is a reason to deflect blame onto straw men, and to silence their critics.
Coordinate attack by the mass media against Romney.!!!! nRomney defends the US and these morons of the mass media.