From Benghazi to Cairo to Jerusalem to Damascus, a question: Where does America stand? (Updated)
In March 2011, the U.S. and our allies intervened in Libya’s burgeoning civil war to prevent a massacre of civilians by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi in the coastal city of Banghazi. Yesterday, militants in that city — including, perhaps, some of the more extremist elements of the rebels whose cause we took up last year — showed their gratitude by killing four Americans, including our ambassador to Libya.
“Lafayette, we are here,” it was not.
The murders in Benghazi followed a siege earlier in the day of the U.S. embassy in Cairo in neighboring Egypt. Both attacks were blamed on Islamic extremists angered by a film hardly anyone in America had heard of, made by someone hardly anyone in America had heard of or discussed, that purportedly insults the Muslim prophet Muhammad. (See screen grab below, a Google search for the name of the movie in question. Note: I stopped at Sept. 5 because results in the days after that date begin to include references to the attacks, which obviously were added as updates after the fact.)
Image: Google screen grab
The attacks came, of course, on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on American soil.
In Cairo, protesters scaled our embassy’s walls, lowered our flag — which was at half-staff in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks — and replaced it with a banner similar to the one used by al-Qaida, and chanted, “We are all Osama,” as in bin Laden. As they did so, some member(s) of the embassy’s staff wrote repeatedly on Twitter — the social media platform that was widely used by young Egyptians during their uprising against Hosni Mubarak’s government — that the U.S. government condemned … the movie. Those tweets were later deleted as the State Department distanced itself from those remarks, but do not believe that the reflexive sensibility on display in the messages came out of the blue: If nothing else, our diplomats, especially three and a half years into a presidency, are well-trained to reflect the prevailing beliefs and sensibilities of the administration in office. That is their job, after all.
The interim president of Libya has apologized for the deaths in his country. As of this writing, there has been no such regret expressed by Egyptian officials. On the contrary, the Muslim Brotherhood, one of whose members is the country’s new president, called for nationwide protests against the film on Friday. At least they said the protests are supposed to be peaceful, I guess.
For his part, the president this morning issued a statement that read, in part: “While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.” The moral equivalence on display here — this is bad, that is bad, and no one should do bad things — is astounding.
But what’s really astounding is that, 11 years to the day after 9/11, our embassies in two Arab countries could be attacked by Islamic terrorists, and our government’s response would include wagging its finger at the people whose non-violent actions allegedly triggered the terrorists’ violence. That, 11 years to the day after 9/11, we still have people who believe these extremists need a reason to be mad at us.
Folks: They don’t need a reason, just an excuse to hand to the useful idiots who will continue to excuse them as people with legitimate religious grievances. (UPDATED at 12:25 p.m.: CNN is now reporting, based on information from “U.S. sources,” that the attacks in Benghazi were planned in advance and used protests about the movie as a diversion.) They just hate us. Period.
Now, “they” does not mean “all Muslims” or “all Arabs” or any such thing. But it does mean a large segment of the populations in the Middle East and North Africa, a relative few of whom trade on the ignorance and pliability of many others to pursue their totalitarian political goals.
Yet, 11 years later, they storm our embassy buildings and kill our civilians, and, 11 years later, our president doesn’t betray an understanding of the cause and effect at play here.
Add to these events and responses the statement from the White House, also yesterday, that the president is not available to meet with the prime minister of Israel, our closest ally in the region and a country known to be mulling military action to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Add to it as well the continuing massacre of Syrians by their own government, in a war eerily similar to the one in which we intervened in Libya, except for the fact that this time even our weakest efforts to stop the government-sponsored killing have been blocked by our supposed friends in Moscow.
And for all the crowing from Democrats, and specifically Obama, at their convention last week about their supposed foreign-policy superiority, the question I keep coming back to is one uttered a week earlier, by Condoleezza Rice, at the GOP convention:
Where does America stand? You see when the friends or foes alike don’t know the answer to that question, unambiguously and clearly, the world is likely to be a more dangerous and chaotic place.
Evidently so.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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575 comments Add your comment
@@
September 12th, 2012
3:45 pm
O.K…..so who’s buying it?
The brother of al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri is proposing to mediate a peace deal between the West and Islamists.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Mohamed al Zawahiri unveiled his proposal for the first time, saying he is in a unique position to help end the violence and that both sides need to make concessions.
Obviously CNN.
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-09-10/middleeast/world_meast_zawahiri-peace-plan_1_zawahiri-islamists-al-qaeda-leader
Osama bin Laden had a similar proposal in 2004, it was quickly followed a year later by the deadly 7/7 subway attack in London killing 52 people.
Burn us one, shame on you. Burn us twice, shame on us.
@@
September 12th, 2012
3:46 pm
Oops!
That should be burn us once, not BURN US ONE.
Hillbilly D
September 12th, 2012
3:47 pm
Foreign oil goes for a whole lot more than gasoline for automobiles. Plastics for instance, which are in virtually every kind of consumer product that there is are made from petroleum. All those plastic water bottles that get thrown away are a reason for our dependence on foreign oil, too.
BW
September 12th, 2012
3:48 pm
Kyle
I was typing as you were responding. I agree that blustery rhetoric without action is idiotic no matter what who occupies the Oval Office. There is a 24 hour news cycle that didn’t exist only a few years ago. Do you think Reagan wouldn’t have been eviscerated in today’s media for his decision in Lebanon after the barracks bombing? I think many people simply fail to understand how reactionary a politican must be in this environment. I agree that the people responsible in these countries are using an “insult” as a thinly veiled excuse to attack. But I disagree that people in countries that we liberate should be “thankful” when we simply establish ourselves as the master of their fates without a realistic exit strategy and return of power to the liberated people. Interventions are so tricky because every country is different but judging by the words in this blog nuance is not something that is easy to sell or even understand. Which is why we should only go into these countries with a strategy and a declaration of war by Congress. There is that constitutional thing that we’ve gotten away from and it allows the opposing party to take potshots without making them vote on it. I believe that if Al Gore was in office on 9-11 and he asked for a declaration of war on that day 11 years ago Congress make this a partisan issue in the manner that all military intervention is today. And for the record short of staying in Afghanistan for eternity there’s no way to win that war without simultaneously conquering Iran and Pakistan. McCain would have only not announced a withdrawal date but would be no closer to “winning” in Afghanistan.
BW
September 12th, 2012
3:50 pm
that should read Congress would not make it a partisan issue
@@
September 12th, 2012
3:55 pm
TBs:
What creep?
This is one of those exchanges that could go on forever. I’m not that into those.
Mandating the Catholic Church pay for contraceptives?
Using taxpayers’ dollars to participate in Planned Parenthood?
By the by, have you heard about the movie “Yellow”? It’s about incestual “love”. The director said “as long as they’ve reached the age of consent and aren’t hurting anyone, what’s the big deal?”
Kinda creepy if ‘ya ask me.
schnirt
Bruno
September 12th, 2012
3:56 pm
Go see the movie 2016 and you wil figure out why Obama is acting like he is. The man is on a mission.
Speaking of “2016″, I was surprised to see how well it was doing commercially. The reviews seem to be divided strictly along party lines, although most of the reviewers stated that the filmmaker is a little more reasoned and objective than Michael Moore, who cuts and splices conversations to make people appear to be saying something that they’re not.
PB and I may go see it, but we’ll wait until it comes to the $1 theater. I’m too cheap to pay for first-run movies.
@@
September 12th, 2012
3:56 pm
Oh…and the incestual “love” is between brother and sister…not some distant relative, 10 times removed.
They BOTH suck
September 12th, 2012
3:59 pm
@@
I misunderstood your post and thought you had fought some personal battles against losing your religious rights and freedoms. Sorry if I assumed that incorrectly.
As for the Catholic Church, don’t some of the organizations offer contraceptives already? Maybe to the faculty at Georgetown via their insurance.
Thanks for the exchange
They BOTH suck
September 12th, 2012
4:00 pm
@@
Not sure what that movie as anything to do with your religious freedom, but of course you are more than welcome to add it in for impact and drama.
@@
September 12th, 2012
4:03 pm
Shuah, TBs…anytime.
Just don’t draw it out into an all-day exchange. I don’t really like people THAT much.
Hillbilly and I would probably get along great considering…
(IW&SH) Hillbilly.
Bruno
September 12th, 2012
4:07 pm
Maybe America’s Christians could offer seminars on how to weather attacks against one’s religious faith.
We’ve had 47+/- years of practice.
Any fair look at history will show that Christians have dished out much more persecution than they have received through the years. Richard Feynman, for example, was prohibited from joining any non-Jewish fraternities at MIT and was almost barred from acceptance to Princeton in the 1930s due to being Jewish. To his credit, he never whined about the discrimination he faced in college and early in his career.
MarkV
September 12th, 2012
4:15 pm
This morning, when the news about the outrageous events in Libya became a subject of discussion on this blog, I wrote “Some people are so anxious to use tragic news for their political purposes …” That is even more pertinent now, in face of Kyle’s shameful, dishonorable article.
Kyle is not so naïve not to know that in countries like Libya and Egypt there are some militants, who hate the US. So when he writes that those people “showed their gratitude by killing four Americans, including our ambassador to Libya,” it can only be called a demagoguery and deliberate stupidity.
Then Kyle attacks someone on the embassy’s staff who tried to defuse the dangerous situation by putting on Twitter that the movie, that was ostensibly the impetus of the attack, was condemned the US government. And he makes the accusation that this call, made in desperation of a dangerous situation, reflects the State Department’s beliefs. Well, Kyle, you office hero, I would like to see YOU in that embassy, facing the danger. It is so easy for these scribes to play courage when they do not deal with physical danger.
Finally, Kyle calls the President’s statement an expression of “moral equivalence.” Either Kyle knows what moral equivalence means and he deliberately misuses the term in an insulting way, or he is a very bad journalist indeed.
Michael H. Smith
September 12th, 2012
4:16 pm
Now it is time to speak directly about 9/11, this event, and other incidents included concerning these political “pseudo religious” extremist and where we stand or more appropriately where we kneel Kyle.
Until we take away their one weapon we shall never be able to stand upright so please Kyle don’t fool yourself by high-tone rhetoric you hear in tough talk, even if it does come from Dr. Rice. For if we had her talking off the record to us in person and we asked her what would it mean if the United States declared that we as a nation would use all of our own natural resources oil, natural gas, wind, solar, bio, coal, nuclear etc. to achieve energy independence what would it do for world peace, stability and diplomacy, I believe she would tell us it would forever change the world as we’ve known it.
If it were not for these countries possessing oil and our refusal to use our own energy resources, which are more than sufficient to power our needs and then some, we would not be having this discussion or any like it, Kyle.
Kyle Wingfield
September 12th, 2012
4:17 pm
BW @ 3:48: “But I disagree that people in countries that we liberate should be “thankful” when we simply establish ourselves as the master of their fates without a realistic exit strategy and return of power to the liberated people.”
But isn’t that what we did in Libya? We don’t have troops on the ground there, and never did.
Bruno
September 12th, 2012
4:20 pm
Then Kyle attacks someone on the embassy’s staff who tried to defuse the dangerous situation by putting on Twitter that the movie, that was ostensibly the impetus of the attack, was condemned the US government.
MarkV–I have to back Kyle on this one. Free speech includes speech which is offensive to some. The right course of action isn’t to give credibility to those who would stifle free speech through violence.
Beyond the Middle of the Road
September 12th, 2012
4:21 pm
Christians killed six and a half million people in concentration camps — primarily Jews but also gypsies, homosexuals, the handicapped, and intellectuals who opposed the Third Reich especially Poles. Throw in another three million or more Soviet POW’s who died mainly of neglect and starvation. Many more Jews died in the Warsaw Ghetto which technically wasn’t a concentration camp. Now that obviously doesn’t mean that ALL Christians are to be condemned for the actions of the minority. Does that sound familiar?
Kyle Wingfield
September 12th, 2012
4:21 pm
MHS @ 4:16: I am all for developing our energy resources, for the reason you state. But the fact is, we aren’t there yet.
Michael H. Smith
September 12th, 2012
4:22 pm
establish ourselves as the master of their fates
Why brucie, I never knew you were such a colonialist at heart.
Just Proud To Be Here
September 12th, 2012
4:23 pm
Did Gravy really try to blame extremist Muslim hatred on Conservatives? Their biggest problem with the ‘Great Satan’ is our immoral culture which is largely a product of the Liberal worldview promoting and funding abortions and homosexual marriage and finding pornography in the First Amendment somewhere. If the extremists don’t like us because Bush didn’t go on an apology tour and appease them, then it’s their problem and they are in the wrong. Sheesh…
Just Proud To Be Here
September 12th, 2012
4:26 pm
Christians didn’t kill 6 million people. It was a despot leader who was operating on a Secular, Atheistic worldview just like Pol Pot and Mao.
9th Grade History fail for you…
MarkV
September 12th, 2012
4:27 pm
Bruno @4:20 pm. “Free speech includes speech which is offensive to some. The right course of action isn’t to give credibility to those who would stifle free speech through violence.”
Bruno, where in my post have you seen anything opposing the above?
cc
September 12th, 2012
4:29 pm
MarkV @ 4:15 pm:
Bookman misses you . . .
Beyond the Middle of the Road
September 12th, 2012
4:29 pm
From Wiki: “The German census of May 1939 indicates that 54 percent of Germans considered themselves Protestant and 40 percent considered themselves Catholic, with only 3.5 percent claiming to be neo-pagan “believers in God,” and 1.5 percent unbelievers. This census came more than six years into the Nazi era.” Nazi Germany was a far more Christian country than the United States is today. In fact, “According to a 2007 survey, 78.4% of adults identified themselves as Christian.”
BW
September 12th, 2012
4:30 pm
Kyle
Hence the issue that intervention is a complex issue. This will continue to be a by-product regardless of whether boots are on the ground. I’m simply disagree that every attack must be followed with military action or bluster. Also as Romney is currently discovering there’s only so far that the politics go in the matter of national security. The simple fact is that this election has been decided by those that matter…the pollsters just won’t call in the electoral college…Romney better do something better than he’s been doing in the last 24 hours. Is this election just about the economy or does comportent also matter?
InAtl
September 12th, 2012
4:30 pm
MarkV, your quote. You slammed Kyle and defended the apologists.
@@
September 12th, 2012
4:31 pm
Bruno:
1930s?
Take it up with the elite academics. We’ve moved on since then.
My little Methodist church enjoys Seder during Jewish Passover every year. One year it’s at their place, the next, it’s at ours.
We’re cousins, don’tcha know.
MarkV
September 12th, 2012
4:31 pm
cc @ 4:29 pm
Nobody will ever miss you.
Michael H. Smith
September 12th, 2012
4:31 pm
But the fact is, we aren’t there yet.
And that Kyle is the insidious unforgivable shame of it all that we bear to this day. This idea or this “very achievable goal” began with Richard Nixon, carried on with Carter, soon forgotten by Reagan and so on down the line of political posturing over power, on how we should go about it or if even we should go about it all.
It’s time to get this thing done not only for our own selfish good but for the very existence of all humanity. Further delay only waste more time and more lives.
Just Proud To Be Here
September 12th, 2012
4:33 pm
Hitler was the one that was responsible for those atrocities and he initiated them. The average German didn’t get a say. Hitler did mention Christianity many times in his writingsthough. He paid Christianity a lot of lip service in Mein Kampf, and he claimed to be a Christian. But Hitler’s secretary, Martin Bormann, also declared that “National Socialism [Nazism] and Christianity are irreconcilable” and Hitler didn’t squawk too much about it. Similarly, Hermann Rauschning, a Hitler associate, said, “One is either a Christian or a German. You can’t be both.” In addition, Hitler declared Nazism the state religion and the Bible was replaced by Mein Kampf in the schools. When you show me where the German people and not Hitler’s military and goons executed those people, your specious argument is just that…and less.
Jeffrey
September 12th, 2012
4:33 pm
Kyle, good points and good column, but you fail to mention how bad this situation would be if Romney was president and based on his reaction today it would be astronomically worse. Romney in his zeal to constantly discredit the president makes himself look like chicken little on drugs.
kelly
September 12th, 2012
4:34 pm
American middle east foreign policy is to undo the damage done over the last 30 years. Propping up dictators is not a policy that can endure. Oppressed peoples will always push back. The sooner we recognize that, the better.
MarkV
September 12th, 2012
4:35 pm
InAtl @ 4:30 pm
Another “hero” sitting on his butt and courageously making stupid comments.
independent thinker
September 12th, 2012
4:37 pm
Obama is sending in the drones and a rapid response Marine team- can Seal Team 6 be far behind?
Oh I forgot the cons claim he is a pro muslim wuz who would never allow Americans to kill Muslims.
Gimme Gimme Gimme
September 12th, 2012
4:37 pm
“Kyle, good points and good column, but you fail to mention how bad this situation would be if Romney was president and based on his reaction today it would be astronomically worse. Romney in his zeal to constantly discredit the president makes himself look like chicken little on drugs.”
Astronomically worse? 4 people got killed including the Ambassador. Hard to see how someone could F-up worse than that.
They BOTH suck
September 12th, 2012
4:37 pm
MHS
That sounds great on paper and I am not saying that the US government and business can’t do more.
With that said, what happened to oil and natural gas exploration in the US during periods of the 80s and 90s when the price bottomed out?
Can’t have it both ways.
Outside of nationalizing the oil industry, how do you prevent them from slowing down production and exploration during periods of falling prices? They have already shown that is exactly what they will do. For that matter, not just big oil, but med size companies here in the US as well.
A Dog Barks When His Master Is Attacked
September 12th, 2012
4:38 pm
If you have two religions in your land, the two will cut each other’s throats;
but if you have thirty religions, they dwell in peace. –Voltaire
Beyond the Middle of the Road
September 12th, 2012
4:40 pm
“I was only following orders.” has stood the test of time of being no excuse whatsoever. But the point I was trying to make is that the actions of a sinister vile few should not be extrapolated onto the vast majority.
Just Proud To Be Here
September 12th, 2012
4:41 pm
How can anyone lecture Romney on style or comportment after Obama has made such an ass of himself on foreign policy. Achmedinanutjob, who openly advocates genocide, brazenly endeavors to commit terrorist attacks on American soil, brutalizes his own people, sponsors terrorism around the world and is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon, is about to speak at the UN and the best our country will do is walk out. Pathetic.
Don't think so
September 12th, 2012
4:42 pm
America being in the Middle East is a lose-lose proposition. You can’t say you believe in democracy unless you support people picking their own leaders, and when they pick their own leaders, those leaders will almost always be hostile to America. I say get out of all Middle East countries (with a few exceptions) and protect our borders.
Jeffrey
September 12th, 2012
4:43 pm
If Romney gets confused over mixed signals from the whitehouse when they are pretty damn clear then he is not fit for office. C’mon now.
InAtl
September 12th, 2012
4:43 pm
MarkV, your comment toward me is incoherent. What are you talking about? And I’m a woman.
Linda
September 12th, 2012
4:43 pm
Just Proud@433, What a coincidence! Obama also claimed to be a Christian!
Just Proud To Be Here
September 12th, 2012
4:45 pm
Middle…I agree with your premise. As a Christian, I condemn those actions by those claiming to be Christians who are acting contrary to Christ’s teachings such as those who murder abortion doctors clearly do not represent for the majority of Christians.
A Dog Barks When His Master Is Attacked
September 12th, 2012
4:45 pm
@@@
September 12th, 2012
4:31 pm
My little Methodist church enjoys Seder during Jewish Passover every year. One year it’s at their place, the next, it’s at ours.
We’re cousins, don’tcha know.
***********************************************************************************
Christians are like frogs holding a symposium round a swamp,
debating which of them is most sinful.–
Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.
Just Proud To Be Here
September 12th, 2012
4:46 pm
Claims is the key word
Bruno
September 12th, 2012
4:46 pm
Bruno, where in my post have you seen anything opposing the above?
See InAtl @ 4:30. Kyle laid out the right course of action in his 2:00.
http://blogs.ajc.com/kyle-wingfield/2012/09/12/from-benghazi-to-cairo-to-jerusalem-to-damascus-a-question-where-does-america-stand/?cp=2#comment-150160
Michael H. Smith
September 12th, 2012
4:48 pm
It is time to get it off paper and that will take all of us telling government, business, and who ever else that is standing in the way of truly using “all of the above” to achieve(with no lip service) energy independence to either get on board or get out of the way. I’ve had it with all the BS and I know the American people have had it up to their eyeballs with all of the BS.
Jeffrey
September 12th, 2012
4:48 pm
Wwcd. What would Cheney do?
the red herring
September 12th, 2012
4:48 pm
great column kyle. the movie was an excuse to bring us harm on 9/11. the democratic convention where they tried to portray obama as osama’s slayer so very many times probably had a lot to do with this. obama had to be convinced to let the seals go after osama and now claims it was his achievement. had we not used bush’s interrogation tactics we wouldn’t have gotten bin laden at all. Now Obama who didn’t want to spike the ball (his own terms) is spiking every chance he gets and then it should come as no surprise to all his supporters when that enrages the other side (radical islamists). we need new leadership in this country first and foremost economically as we are bankrupt under this president (i’ll cut the deficit in half in my first term then adds 6 trillion in debt) then secondly from a foreign policy standpoint—it scares me to death to think what he means when he tells russia “wait till after the next election and i’ll have more flexibility”. that is bad news for america (whether you are black, brown, white, yellow, red, or green). This man held not real job, ran no business, had not real experience in finance and yet he fooled america into “hope and change”. Well unless we have change now there will be no hope.