Short Take — Libyan Embassy Crisis

The attack on the Libyan embassy and continued demonstrations at other embassies is deeply significant. First, this:

http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/09/16/the-truth-about-the-wave-of-anti-american-demonstrations/

I largely agree with Barry Rubin here. I am getting very steamed off by the administration’s response to this incident and the almost non nonchalant way they’re glossing over the death of a US ambassador. Don’t buy the ‘This stupid film caused it’ line. These people were looking for any kind of justification and to step into the trap of attacking free speech would only play into their hands.

This incident in Libya should have provoked the wrath of God from the US. And I don’t mean war per say – We should have been demanding protection and threatening to withdraw all support from affected countries immediately if they hemmed and hawed. Instead – we prattle, apologize, blow in the wind. It makes our country look weak and uncaring, and gives our friends even more reasons to doubt out word.

The killing of Americans – or any westerner, for that matter – should not be allowed to become a trivial act. If we fail to respond decisively to the death of an ambassador and several diplomats – an act throughout history traditionally regarded as an act of war – we simply undermine ourselves. 

I’ll break things down in more detail another day. But a few more thoughts –

It is likely that Iranian intelligence / Hezbollah was behind this attack, or Al Qaeda. Whatever party orchestrated what was absolutely a deliberate, planned out, targeted assassination is attempting to stoke a regional war, and as we all know with politics – it could be for any number of reasons.

I’m also deeply frustrated that the western press is so eager to baby and excuse religious bigotry when it come from radical Islam. There is a hard line in the sand when it comes to freedom of speech and expression, and people who wish to live in a modern world have to learn to take blows and suck it up just like everybody else does. Christianity and most modern mainstream religions regularly get ridiculed. Fundamentalist Islam should not get a pass just because they get violent.

This has just been an awful week news wise. A wonderful lead in to the election season!