In a pair of attacks more than 650 miles apart, Islamists stormed and seized two US embassies. In Cairo, Egypt, Islamists scaled the wall, tore down and desecrated the American flag, and hoisted their own Islamic flag which reads: “There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his messenger.”
In Benghazi, Libya, Islamists stormed the US consolate and nearly burned it to the ground. One American has reportedly been killed.
While Egypt has long enjoyed friendly relations with the United States, Libya and the US have been enemies since that country sponsored terrorist attacks on the West in the 1980s. Relations had thawed recently after the US helped oust strongman Muammar Gaddafi from power.
The US response to both attacks may go down as the weakest response to any international crisis in living memory.
Whether the attacks were coordinated or viral, they were supposedly centered on a movie that depicts Mohammed in an unflattering light. The attacks, then, resemble the Danish cartoon jihad of 2005, and free speech, as opposed to the embassies, is the actual target. What is at stake is whether the Western idea of pluralism and tolerance for opposing points of view will win out, or whether the Islamists get to veto the rights of others to speak their minds.
In a globally connected world, few questions are more important.
One would expect, or rather hope, that the American response to an attack against one of our core beliefs would be met with strength. Instead, the US embassy in Cairo offered a poisonous bromide of apologies and cowardice:
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
Of the desecration of the American flag, which should offend all citizens of the most powerful nation on earth, the American embassy said nothing.
Embassies on foreign soil are regarded as the sovereign territory to the countries they represent. To these twin attacks on US soil, the administration said nothing.
On the same day both of these Islamist attacks occurred, President Barack Obama did a curious thing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to the United States for a brief trip at the end of September. He requested a meeting with President Obama. The president turned him down. President Obama will probably reverse course, but the effect of today’s refusal is that it will push Israel farther from the US and remind everyone in the region that we are no longer its trustworthy ally.
It isn’t difficult to read into the president’s lack of response to the attacks on our embassies, and his refusal to adjust his campaign schedule to meet with the leader of our strongest ally in the region, a shift in US policy. Recall that last week, his party attempted to remove language from its platform recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
President Obama may believe that his shift is nothing more than hitching US policy to the “strong horse” in the oil-rich Middle East. After the Arab Spring, that strong horse is clearly Islamism as defined by the Muslim Brotherhood. But his response, and that of the embassy in Cairo, betray weakness. No one respects weakness, and these responses may have cost America what was left of our influence in the region. Who will listen to any nation that can’t even be bothered to protect its embassies or its core values?
On page 261 of his book The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama declared that if the post 9-11 political winds shifted in an ugly direction against Muslims, he would stand with them. In the Middle East on September 11, 2012, the political winds shifted heavily against the United States. And Barack Obama did not say a thing.
Update: According to the US embassy in Cairo, Islam is a wonderful religion.
Update: Romney calls Obama administration response “disgraceful.“
Since they’ve attacked our embassies, maybe we can at least stop giving these people money. It doesn’t seem like it’s buying us much good will, and if they really need the money, let them get it directly from the Chinese.
Obama may not be Poseidon; he did not lower the seas. But he is certainly Aeolus, the Master of Wind—and it is President Aeolus who shifted the winds of the Middle East.
But that shift did not come today; President Aeolus shifted the winds of the Middle East when he went to Cairo to grovel to the Muslim Brotherhood. This is simply Obama’s chickens coming home to roost, as Obama’s pastor of twenty years might say.
no. that day was 11/4/2008
– Middle and Far East.
America lost her influence in the middle east, and the rest of the world for that matter, the day Obama was elected.
This is Obama’s clear statement that his ultimate loyalty is not to the United States of America, but rather to his idealized vision of the United Nations, which he willingly drops to his knees to worship while his State Dept. bows and scrapes to America-hating Islamists.
On the other hand, with today’s stuff, the “Arab-American as disadvantaged class” ruling is either DOA, or the death ride of the Democratic party. Either one is acceptable.
Truth is totally irrelevant to the Muslim. Mo was a pedophile and a rapist and a murderer, oh, and an adulterer, too. That is historical fact, supported by well respected Muslim history. So, apparently, to “reveal” these “inconvenient” truths in public is not to be tolerated.
There is no concept of free speech in the totalitarian world of Islam. We shouldn’t apologize for a “documentary” on Mo’s life. We should, on the other hand, be in the forefront of the defense of free speech around the world. But, that is not the view of the current U.S. administration.
just a stray thought.
I was a maniacal terrorist who was just a wee bit worried that my president obama might lose his throne from which he is doing more damage to the great Satan than an army of a million jihadists could reck, I might just cause a little bit of mischief and then allow the great man to shame me with a sharp rebuke or maybe a cruise missle or two.
It would be well worth losing a few dozen freedom fighters to keep my buddy in the Great Satan’s highest office.
If it happens, call it the September surprise.
I always puzzled over the passages that describe the final battle and second coming and wondered why Israel had no earthly allies. Surely America would stand by her, I thought. Sadly, I’m beginning to understand how something like that might come to be. Indeed, I believe America’s betrayal of Israel is happening right before our eyes. And very few people seem to care. Amazing.
First thought….
The next time someone pi$$es and moans about Israel spying on the US, or some such mischief, keep this administration’s response in mind when judging them.
Would I rather Israel NOT engage in such acts against a nominal ally – of course.
But at the same time Israel is in it for their own survival, and like it or not the rotation of various administrations can leave them quite vulnerable. They have to rely upon themselves as the US is not an ally that can always be counted on – especially when a democrat administration takes office.
Hopefully the Israelis know the average American supports them, regardless of who is in office at the time, and can discern a difference between popular public opinion and the official policy of any one administration.
Second thought….
This president started his term by bowing to the Saudis (and pretty much everyone else) and the Islamists rightfully saw this as a sign of weakness.
They have read this man correctly.
As for our own freedom of speech rights, we need to keep in mind certain fundamental facts.
No matter what we do, the Islamic Fundamentalists are always – ALWAYS – going to have a bone to pick with us until we make like good little subservients and convert to Islam.
Their religion demands it.
Nothing less will satisfy them, and until we do that they are going to continue to try to kill us, and jump on every little excuse they can find – no matter how ridiculous – to fuss and wail at us for every little perceived slight.
Third thought….
Perhaps it’s time to try an opposite approach?
Perhaps it’s time to begin to castigate their very real cultural inferiorities, ridicule their societal shortcomings, and completely make a joke of their prophet and expose him for what he really was.
And then do it again.
And again.
And again.
They want to be hyper-sensitive about their religion? They want to complain that we don’t show their prophet the proper respect?
How about we REALLY show them a lack of respect, you know, just so they can be clear in the future as to when we are being polite and when we really are being disrespectful?
At some point it becomes overwhelming even for these idiots to complain about every single example.
After all, it’s not like they are ever going to like us anyway.
Last thought….
We should have a 3 year plan (not 4 year, not 5 year, not 10 year) to shift US energy consumption to domestically produced oil and natural gas supplies.
Perhaps have a policy that initially favors sources such as North Sea oil, Canadian oil, Mexican oil – with a longer term policy that these would ultimately become secondary sources after domestically produced oil from our own known oil reserves, such as ANWAR and known offshore oil and natural gas deposits.
If the 5-legged speckled purple tree toad gets in the way, then by God drill right through his head! If he doesn’t have enough sense to get out of the way, well then Darwin goes into effect.
Oh, and I lied, I do have one more thought…..
Where is Hillary Clinton in all of this? I thought she was head of the State Department?
A FB friend who is living in the Middle East posted your line: “The US response to both attacks may go down as the weakest response to any international crisis in living memory.” as coming from one of the papers she read this morning. She says it was Khaleej Times, Gulf News, or 7 Days. Google is useless at such searches, so if y’all have Lexis, you might get a hit. I didn’t find it. If they are saying this in the ME, that’s something we should know.