I am stunned.
Stunned that our government would betray its own Constitution to side with our enemies.
Stunned that they did this on 9/11, of all days.
Stunned that a culture remains so backward in the 21st century that an embarrassingly amateurish home movie actually poses a threat to their fragile worldview.
And most of all stunned that our government’s betrayal of its own nation isn’t dominating the news and the public consciousness.
The story has come out in fits and starts, so many people haven’t yet pieced together the whole narrative. To clear everything up, here’s everything that has happened thus far, chronologically:
Two Egyptian Coptic Christians, fleeing persecution from Islamic oppression, emigrated to America. Once here, they hooked up with Qur’an-burning preacher Terry Jones and made an amateur video dramatizing crimes against Copts in Egypt, which transitions mid-way through into a serio-comic mockery of Mohammed.
The movie is so bad, on every level — bad script, bad acting, ludicrous set design, weird overdubbed audio, laughable special effects — that it would barely get a passing grade in a high school video production class. But apparently it was on par with professional Egyptian productions, because when a 14-minute trailer appeared on YouTube, Egyptian media and Egyptian fundamentalist imams seized on it, made a dubbed Arabic version, and whipped up the Muslim populace by showing the clip over and over. The entire nation of Egypt took it very seriously.
Here’s the original English version — imagine taking this as a legitimate and serious threat to your existence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC6yGzpSvjU
As you’ve surely heard by now, Muslim preachers chose today, 9/11, to incite the faithful to storm the U.S. embassy in Cairo; for the first time ever, Islamic protesters breached the fortress-like walls of the embassy, tore down the American flag, and replaced it with an al-Qaeda flag.
And what was the American government’s response to this?
To condemn the Christians who made the film and to reject the principles of the First Amendment (I took a screenshot just in case):
Here’s the text, with the key portions highlighted:
U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement
September 11, 2012
The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.
Twice in the official statement (and once more in the headline) the State Department criticizes the Christians who made the film — not the people who committed an act of war against us by invading U.S. sovereign territory (the embassy). This is simply beyond the pale.
I thought we had resolved this issue years ago: The concept of “freedom of speech” is absolute, and if you start restricting speech based on political considerations, or because someone takes offense, then it is not free at all. The very point behind guaranteeing free speech is to protect controversial speech. One doesn’t need a constitution to protect people’s right to say “Have a nice day.”
And yet here is our own government granting a bullies’ veto to our sworn enemies. And it’s no laughing matter when our government says it “condemns” and “firmly rejects” something; it has the power to enforce those opinions. It’s one thing for an essentially powerless private individual to say he doesn’t like something; it’s quite another for that opinion to be backed by the full force of the government.
Needless to say, if I were president, the State Department would have issued a press release saying, “Aw, did the little movie-wovie hurt your wittle feelings? Go suck an egg. P.S. We are now in a state of war with Egypt, as your armed forces facilitated an invasion of our sovereign territory.”
To further confirm our caving in to our enemies, today our State Department through the embassy responded to some random troll on Twitter by falling all over itself to say that “Islam is a wonderful religion.” Not possible? Sorry — it happened:
Again, the text with the key portion highlighted:
No, that’s not true. We consistently stand up for Muslims around the world and talk abt how Islam is a wonderful religion
Meanwhile, as noted here on PJM and elsewhere, as all this was going on, President Obama pointedly refused to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his upcoming trip to the U.S., an outrageous slap in the face to a nation that is supposed to be our strongest ally.
To top it all off, Obama just commanded the United Stated armed forces to conduct military exercises with the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egyptian military, while at the same time cutting way back on a long-planned exercise with Israel.
It’s all so counter-intuitive that the average person likely cannot grasp what is happening at this moment: The United States is switching sides. We are joining forces with a nation of people that hates us and everything we stand for, while simultaneously turning our backs on a nation of people that love us. And we are agreeing with those who do not even grasp the bedrock of our political system, much less approve of it.
In other words: Our government has become overtly anti-American. We are aiding our enemies. We apologize when they attack us, and agree with their reasoning. We discard our own Constitution if our enemies take offense at it.
We are committing suicide.
Correction: We are not committing suicide. The Obama administration is committing nation-cide on us, an act of euthanasia on the United States. A mercy killing of our way of life.
Forget about the economy, the campaign, the polls, the partisan jabs: Today’s events all by themselves are more than reason enough why Obama needs to be removed from power as quickly as possible. The mask is completely removed. If he remains in office, by 2016 the United States will be fully allied with Islamic regimes, will be in a state of undeclared hostilities against Israel and our former allies, will clamp down on any speech that criticizes Islam and (eventually) any other politically protected ideology or belief. The First Amendment, and by extension all the amendments that follow, will be in tatters.
Today is the second 9/11. On the first 9/11, back in 2001, we suffered a major attack, but that attack unified us. The people joined together with each other and with the government. Today, in 2012, we suffered a very small attack, but the response was the exact opposite of what happened eleven years ago: This time around, our very own government sided with those who attacked us.
This would have seemed inconceivable eleven years ago. But it has now happened.
Thanks entirely to Obama, our government is now our enemy.
If you value anything about this nation: Vote.
UPDATE:
The Obama Administration is suddenly in panic mode and has begun to backpedal, even as Romney quickly joins in the criticism of the White House.
Also on the Tatler:
Join the conversation as a VIP Member