Poll Position: How should Obama respond to embassy attacks?
The big story this week was the series of attacks on U.S. embassies across the Middle East and North Africa: from Libya, where our ambassador was killed, to Egypt, Yemen and, today, Tunisia and Sudan. In Libya, the government is cooperating with the investigation into the murders of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The responses from the other countries have been mixed, but they have been rather tepid on the whole.
How should Obama respond to the attacks on our embassies?
- Cut foreign aid (255 Votes)
- Pursue the killers in Libya; otherwise, lie low (173 Votes)
- Stop issuing travel visas for people from those countries (130 Votes)
- Bomb 'em (108 Votes)
- Economic sanctions (106 Votes)
- Too soon to say (102 Votes)
- Cut diplomatic ties (91 Votes)
- Increase foreign aid (5 Votes)
Total Voters: 517
Loading ...President Obama made a mistake Wednesday evening when he said of the Egyptian government, which has been in place less than three months, “I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy.” It was a mistake because the White House on Thursday had to walk back the statement; later Thursday, the State Department had to walk back the walk back, clarifying that Egypt retains the official designation of Major Non-NATO Ally it has held since 1989.
But this post isn’t about criticizing Obama for shooting first and aiming later. (OK, maybe it’s a little bit about that.) It’s really about the question most of us have been pondering since the attacks in Libya and Egypt on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of 9/11: What is the proper response?
Some of you took my first post on the subject to imply a military action is needed. As I tried to make clear in the comments, that’s not the case. Things would have to spiral much further out of control before we were talking about military action.
Unless, of course, you include drone flights and a possible targeted strike on the terrorists responsible for the ambassador’s death, which the Obama administration appears to be considering at the very least.
Otherwise, there are a range of options here. We could pull our diplomats from their capitals. We could expel their diplomats from Washington. We cut cut or eliminate foreign aid to these countries. We could, I suppose, increase our foreign aid to them and use it to promote and educate them about our laws and values (such as freedom of expression). We could officially remove them from our list of allies. We could stop issuing travel visas from their country to ours. We could impose some form of economic sanctions. Or we could essentially do nothing more than pursue the people who killed Stevens and the other Americans.
What should Obama’s response entail? That’s this week’s Poll Position question. Answer in the nearby poll — NOTE: unlike most of my polls, you can select more than one answer in this one — and the comments thread below.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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949 comments Add your comment
Iowa St Fair
September 14th, 2012
3:57 pm
“He’s not speaking for our government – yet.”
And he still will not be speaking on behalf of the government when he is campaigning at road side diners and looking forward to the Iowa state fair, the next week after the November elections.
He is going to be in the Guinness World Book for the man who campaigned the longest and never won the WH.
Michael H. Smith
September 14th, 2012
3:58 pm
Correction: As Woodward said aptly… Reagan and Clinton “were able to” work their will with the opposing party in power. “obama” has shown he cannot.
gm
September 14th, 2012
3:58 pm
Gee Kyle do you think Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld are in a position to criticize President Obama foreign policies?
I mean 3500 Americans dead 911, 4000 American troops dead in Iraq, all under their watch this is hypocrisy from the right to the fullest.
Tom(Independent Viet Vet,USAF)
September 14th, 2012
3:58 pm
We do not need to pay those countries to like us!!! Stop all foreign aid, except to allies!
MrLiberty
September 14th, 2012
3:59 pm
Real simple – pull all of our troops out of the middle east, close all the bases, bring home the murderous mercenaries from Xe/Blackwater or whatever their latest name is, and protect america from the shores of THIS country.
Just think of the economic boom we would see having all of those soldiers pay spent here instead of there. Just think of the hundreds of billions we would save in military spending costs (I specifically did not use the word’s DEFENSE COSTS as none of this has ANYTHING to do with defense). Just think of how much respect we would finally begin to get from the citizens of these countries when we finally stop killing all of those innocent men, women, and children, and finally get our noses out of their politics and national elections. Oh, of course that will also mean the CIA and other black ops criminals will also need to leave.
MrLiberty
September 14th, 2012
4:00 pm
Even Reagan finally realized it was time to leave Lebanon (a bit too late sadly).
independent thinker
September 14th, 2012
4:00 pm
Good article Kyle- The administration was negligent on the Libya embassy attack. Check out the Al Quaida status of nearby Derna where more insurgents shipped to Iraq than any other location in Arab World. US drone just killed their no. 2 leader in Derna. An eye for an eye and all that is big over there. We should have been prepared but may have thought the locals could protect us.
So my question to You Kyle was Bush correct in signing a military treaty and normalizing relations with Qaddafi based on his promise to go after Al-Quaida in light of Qaddafi’s terrorist history?????????????????
Just Saying..
September 14th, 2012
4:03 pm
md:
And my observation is that your paraphrase seems to reveal that, to you, there is little or no distinction between “be like” and “look like”.
Whereas, most people agree that a just society allows for a complete distinction between a person’s appearance, and a person behavior.
gm
September 14th, 2012
4:04 pm
Gee Kyle should we stop foreign aid to Saude? I mean the terroist from 911 were from there, Bush never asked to stop foreign aide to them.
This shows once again the hypocrites on the right, this is shameful”””’
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 14th, 2012
4:05 pm
Middle Eastern muslims: Whining, crybaby, parasite losers looking really hard for ways to be offended.
Just like the Democrat party.
md
September 14th, 2012
4:06 pm
” (I specifically did not use the word’s DEFENSE COSTS as none of this has ANYTHING to do with defense). ”
And you would be wrong…….many of those troops are there to police the world like it or not…..and why should that matter to us? Because like it our not our economy runs on oil……lots and lots of oil. Take the ME oil off the market and the 2008 collapse will pale in comparison…….folks would wish we had $5 a gallon gas………….
fair and blanced
September 14th, 2012
4:06 pm
Y’All do not remember how anti US and Israel protests were daily occurrences in that region back in the sixties and seventies until Sadat and Jimmy Carter saddled up together.With a birth rate of 6 or 7 children per family they got to find something to do when they grow up. Why are we not outsourcing jobs there? Workers too busy protesting and too much rioting???”
Michael H. Smith
September 14th, 2012
4:08 pm
AND, Tom(Independent Viet Vet,USAF) we do not need to buy their oil nor should or allies.
The Unites States has the world largest known reserves of recoverable methane/natural gas, the most coal and a great deal more oil than many will admit we have in the ground. Furthermore, our energy research and that of our allies is head and shoulders above the rest of the world.
If you want to send a message, send one they cannot refuse to hear and it is the one that will cost them, not us.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 14th, 2012
4:08 pm
independent thinker: was Bush correct in signing a military treaty and normalizing relations with Qaddafi
——————-
Didn’t happen.
JamVet
September 14th, 2012
4:08 pm
OK Kyle, first my “missing’ post is still missing. Notwithstanding your claim at 1:10. Am I missing something missing here? (Talk about a setup!)
Secondly, we can agree that tibs did in fact lie about the statement from the American embassy in Cairo, correct? He asserted that they “blamed America” when the incontrovertible truth is that they did not. (And he calls ME an America-hater???)
Thirdly and once again:
Romney was flat out dead wrong in his stupid assertion that the administration’s “first response” on Tuesday was one of sympathy for those who started the violence itself–as the violence came AFTER the first statement was published.
In his statement, Romney said, “It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s FIRST RESPONSE (the one that tibs unwittingly provided to his own downfall) was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.
Why does this very basic, very understandable fact allude you Republicans? NO AMERICAN AT NO TIME “SYMPATHIZED WITH THOSE WHO WAGED THE ATTACKS”.
Please explain to me how you cannot grasp this???
Your candidate is disgraceful and unfit to lead.
You wrote:
Point to a statement by the administration condemning the attacks that came before the embassy’s statement condemning the movie
How is that humanly possible??? The attacks had not yet happened when they made the statement about the movie!!!
Oh well, like I said Mitt is DOA and nothing is going to change that.
And you deserve each other…
md
September 14th, 2012
4:09 pm
“And my observation is that your paraphrase seems to reveal that, to you, there is little or no distinction between “be like” and “look like”.
Whereas, most people agree that a just society allows for a complete distinction between a person’s appearance, and a person behavior.”
And my observation is that you don’t understand the underlying reason he said anything in the first place…….why would he say if he had a son he would look like Martin just for the heck of it?
He was implying in that situation…….or do you think he took the time just to let us all know his son would look like a black boy???
Just Saying..
September 14th, 2012
4:10 pm
“He is going to be in the Guinness World Book for the man who campaigned the longest and never won the WH.”
True. But my personal fav is the amount of money Guy Miller spent, in three statewide elections, to discover that most Georgians just weren’t that into him.
Probably could have found that out for a lot less…
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 14th, 2012
4:10 pm
Blaming all this Muslim violence on a video, is equivalent to that clown in Colorado that shot all those innocent people, claiming Batman/The Joker made him do it, he had no control over his actions.
Just Saying..
September 14th, 2012
4:11 pm
“As Woodward said aptly… Reagan and Clinton “were able to” work their will with the opposing party in power. “obama” has shown he cannot.”
So true, so far…
Kyle Wingfield
September 14th, 2012
4:13 pm
JamVet: I’ve already pushed through the only comment of yours that hadn’t been published. I’ve checked the spam filter again and nothing else is there.
As for the substance: You seem to be disputing the “first response” part. Again, which response came before that? And, again, I am not only talking about the initial statement made before the embassy was overrun — the embassy kept reiterating the same sentiment for hours afterward.
MarkV
September 14th, 2012
4:13 pm
The President made no mistake when he called Egypt neither ally, nor foe. It was a not-so-subtle reminder to the Egyptian leaders where the money is coming from and who can stop it, if they do not do what is expected from them. And it worked. Then a diplomatic pro-forma “correction” was made. That is how diplomacy works.
independent thinker
September 14th, 2012
4:17 pm
Mr. liberty- Reagan showed how weak we were to the Arabs causing a lot of subsequent problems. 159 Marines killed in cold blood in Lebanon by Hezbollah. Instead of wiping them off the face of the earth, Reagan fled and never retaliated. Today Hezbollah controls Lebanon. In 2006 Israel was on the verge of wiping out Hezbollah and Condi and Bush made them stop and pull out. Explain to me why the cons are so weak and show their butts to the Arabs?
Michael H. Smith
September 14th, 2012
4:18 pm
So true, so far…
Even more true is he(obama) doesn’t understand that when you win something don’t be so stupid as to lose everything by breaking your own deal in push the other guy for more.
Teddy Kennedy was never that stupid when he was drunk and he was dumb even when he was sober, IMHO
Just Saying..
September 14th, 2012
4:18 pm
“And you would be wrong…….many of those troops are there to police the world like it or not…..and why should that matter to us? Because like it our not our economy runs on oil……lots and lots of oil. Take the ME oil off the market and the 2008 collapse will pale in comparison…….folks would wish we had $5 a gallon gas………….”
Yeessss. And thus the reason that many of us believe our better strategic move is to end our “addiction” (and just who used that term?) to oil, so our attention, treasure, and children are not bound to that 13th century world any longer.
Kyle Wingfield
September 14th, 2012
4:21 pm
MarkV: No, the way diplomacy works is that the threats are made behind closed doors, so that you don’t look like you didn’t know what you were talking about when the “pro-forma ‘correction’ ” is made.
Linda
September 14th, 2012
4:22 pm
Kyle@4:13, You are soooooooooooooooooooooo smart. That is also the first place I would have looked for JamVet’s post: in the spam filter.
md
September 14th, 2012
4:23 pm
“And thus the reason that many of us believe our better strategic move is to end our “addiction” (and just who used that term?) to oil, so our attention, treasure, and children are not bound to that 13th century world any longer.”
And there’s nothing wrong with moving away from oil……but the fact remains it can’t be done over night, so all this bluster about just pulling out is asinine……….
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 14th, 2012
4:23 pm
Obozo don’t know diplomacy.
MarkV
September 14th, 2012
4:23 pm
Kyle keeps defending the indefensible – Romney’s falsehoods.
“”The Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attack.”
To lies in one short sentence.
Kyle Wingfield
September 14th, 2012
4:25 pm
MarkV: Same question posed to JamVet and unanswered: Where’s the lie?
Michael H. Smith
September 14th, 2012
4:25 pm
Take the ME oil off the market and the 2008 collapse will pale in comparison…….folks would wish we had $5 a gallon gas………….”
WE only have to put our oil, natural gas and coal on the market and the ME countries would soon wish they could get $2 a gallon for their refined oil……………………………………”
When we become self reliant on our own energy resources alone ONE FOURTH of the world’s energy consumption just left the ME marketplace
MarkV
September 14th, 2012
4:26 pm
Kyle Wingfield @ 4:21 pm
Obviously, you do not know much about diplomacy. Threats can be made behind the front door or behind them, depending on situation.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 14th, 2012
4:29 pm
“Egypt retains the official designation of Major Non-NATO Ally it has held since 1989″
—————-
Looks like Obozo shot first and aimed later.
What an incompetent fool.
smc
September 14th, 2012
4:29 pm
Oh how ’bout Obama responds by:
1) campaigning non-stop
2) boycotting his own security briefings
3) giving billions of taxpayer dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood (circumventing congress)
Oh, wait — that IS how he has responded.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 14th, 2012
4:30 pm
Yesterdays topic
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49037337
Ratings firm Egan-Jones cut its credit rating on the U.S. government to “AA-” from “AA,” citing its opinion that quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve would hurt the U.S. economy and the country’s credit quality.
Thank you Mr. Bernanke.
md
September 14th, 2012
4:30 pm
“Obviously, you do not know much about diplomacy.”
After 4 years of observation I’d hazard to say it is the other way around…..much like challenging the justices at the sotu……and I’m not too sure Roberts didn’t give a little back with that hc tax………
MarkV
September 14th, 2012
4:30 pm
Kyle Wingfield @ 4:25 pm
“”The Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, “
Lie number one. The message from the Embassy – the “first response” – was not made in response to the attack, but to defuse the dangerous situation.
“but to sympathize with those who waged the attack.”
Lie number two. There was no “sympathizing with those who waged the attack.”
independent thinker
September 14th, 2012
4:31 pm
For the ignorant ones on this blog who continuously challenge the facts based on ignorance::
“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"TRIPOLI, Libya – A delegation of US senators led by John McCain met with Libya’s leader yesterday to discuss the possible delivery of nonlethal defense equipment. The visit and Washington’s offer of military equipment was another sign of the improving ties between the former longtime adversaries.“We discussed the possibility of moving ahead with the provision of nonlethal defense equipment to the government of Libya,’’ McCain said during a press conference. He gave no details on the kind of military equipment Washington is offering.
A halting, five-year rapprochement between the two countries began in 2003 when Moammar Khadafy renounced terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Earlier this year, Washington posted an ambassador to Libya for the first time in 36 years.”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”
http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2009/08/15/mccain_says_libya_may_get_us_goods/
In fact Libyan military brass were in the US getting anti-terrorism briefings when the revolution broke out. If you know how to use Google you will find it.
JamVet
September 14th, 2012
4:32 pm
Kyle, thanks for checking.
You seem to be disputing the “first response” part. Again, which response came before that?
I may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, (LOL!) but how could there be a response that came before the first response?
Seriously!
The first response from the embassy condemned misguided individuals, etc. This was BEFORE the attacks. Is that correct?
Romney said that the first response “was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” Is that correct?
If so, he lied.
I respect you and your analysis but either this is becoming a theater of the absurd.
Because if there some other “first response” that has not been provided here, I’d love to see it.
And one more time, the salient point that you will not touch – Romney was in my useless opinion a scumbag for saying AMERICANS SYMPATHIZED WITH THOSE WHO WAGED THE ATTACKS.
Gawd, can we have John McCain back? At least he is an honorable man…
Jefferson
September 14th, 2012
4:33 pm
Romney is losing, and he is the cause.
Kyle Wingfield
September 14th, 2012
4:33 pm
MarkV: “Lie number one. The message from the Embassy – the “first response” – was not made in response to the attack, but to defuse the dangerous situation.”
But…you admit it was a response…and that it came before anything else…so how was it not the “first response”?
“Lie number two. There was no “sympathizing with those who waged the attack.” ”
That’s your opinion. It does not make Romney’s statement a “lie.” Regardless of what you hear behind the front door.
kelly
September 14th, 2012
4:35 pm
With your diplomatic chops Kyle, I’m sure glad you’re not the President. Obama knew exactly what he was doing; and he did it knowing he would take flak for it. The new Egyptian government now has a new understanding of what their role is in their relationship with the U.S. Obama’s public threat was the right message. And make no mistake, it was a threat.
Kyle Wingfield
September 14th, 2012
4:35 pm
JamVet: “This was BEFORE the attacks. Is that correct?”
Yes — and it was repeated, many times, after the attacks began. What didn’t come until later was the condemnation of the attack.
Kyle Wingfield
September 14th, 2012
4:37 pm
Bush Derangement Syndrome: The belief that anything George W. Bush did was wrong.
Obama Derangement Syndrome: The belief that anything Barack Obama does was coolly calculated and cannot possibly be wrong.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 14th, 2012
4:37 pm
Libs working overtime to make their klown prince appear something other than incompetent and out of his depth.
The embassies were unprepared for an easily foreseeable occurrence.
Our government is ate up with folks who hate America, see us as the root of all evil in the world, and do sympathize with our enemies.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 14th, 2012
4:39 pm
Didn’t the Obozo administration delete those tweets expressing sympathy with those who waged the attack?
I wonder why they would do that?
Shooting first and aiming later?
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 14th, 2012
4:40 pm
The condemnation of the attack by the Obama regime occurred after the condemnation of the Romney comment. Priorities, right?
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 14th, 2012
4:40 pm
What Obozo needs is “more flexibility”.
Vote American to make sure he doesn’t get it.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 14th, 2012
4:41 pm
Excellent point, Rafe.
Party over country. Every time.
JamVet
September 14th, 2012
4:46 pm
So, we agree that Romney did in fact lie. Not just about the “first response” but that Americans sympathized with the attackers.
And why there has been so much blowback from not just Dems, but concerned Repubs and others.
I simply cannot understand how such deplorable words from a man trying to lead the free world are so cavalierly ignored.
If I were a family member of those slain public servants I would be seething at the very picture or mention of him right about now.
But have a great weekend, Kyle!
We can tilt blogging swords later.
Off to FNM at Jay’s…