Apology in Egypt and followed by Killings in Libya

 

Mitt Romney is being criticized by the Obama Administration and its enablers in the "mainstream press" for expressing his view that the US Embassy in Cairo should not have issued a statement condemning “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims" shortly before the Embassy was stormed, as shown above, by protesters angry about a video depicting the prophet Mohammad unfavorably. Eight hours after the protesters attacked the Embassy, climbing the walls around it, tearing down American flags, trying to burn them and raising a black flag commonly used by Muslim extremists, the Embassy issued another statement saying "This morning's condemnation [of those who made a film "hurting the feelings" of Muslims] (issued before the protest began) still stands. As does our condemnation of the unjustified breach of our Embassy."

Romney's statement criticizing the official statements by the US Embassy in Cairo was issued four hours after the Embassy restated its original condemnation of those exercising their rights of free expression in the US and three hours after the first unconfirmed reports of a death of a US diplomat in Libya. Within minutes after Romney's statement regarding the Cairo Embassy's first inclination about the Mohammad video being to condemn those who made a film that could hurt the feelings of Muslims, the Obama Administration issued this statement from Washington, DC: "The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government.”

 

Twenty minutes after the Obama Administration officially rejected the Cairo Embassy's twice repeated apologies for hurting Muslim feelings - just as Mitt Romney had done earlier - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed that US diplomats had been killed in Benghazi, Libya. The attackers set the consulate on fire, as shown above. Today it was reported that the American ambassador to Libya was killed as a result of smoke inhalation during the fire. In Secretary Clinton's statement to the press condemning the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, she also added that “the U.S. deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.”

So while US diplomats are being attacked and killed in North Africa, the Obama Administration tempered every response expressing outrage at the senseless violence by indicating sympathy for the thugs carrying out the violence because their religious "feelings" were hurt!

So why is Mitt Romney being criticized? Was it because he said that the US should not apologize for its values - that include freedom of expression and tolerance for differing religious beliefs - when our foreign service representatives are being literally attacked in other countries by those who use violence and bloodshed rather than peaceful protests to demonstrate their anger at the acts of private American citizens in our free society? Or was it because Romney made his statement before anyone in the Obama Administration in Washington clarified that the statements made hours before by the US Embassy in Cairo were not "cleared by Washington" and do not express the views of the US government.

Why did it take the Obama Administration about twelve hours to officially reject the Cairo Embassy's "apology" - which was later reconfirmed by the Embassy after the protests were underway? Did Romney wake up the Obama officials in Washington to what its Cairo foreign service officers said before and after the angry protests started?

It is clear that the Obama Administration came to the same views as Romney did about the misguided statements issued by its own Embassy in Cairo after Romney's statement of condemnation of the ill-advised attempt at appeasement, which was answered with the violent attacks in Cairo and Benghazi. We may find out in the days ahead whether the more violent attacks in Benghazi were inspired by the weak US response in Cairo earlier in the day or whether Muslim extremists possibly used the Cairo protests against the Mohammad film as a pretext to launch a pre-planned attack on the consulate, which was not as adequately protected as more fortified US Embassies generally are.

These events on September 11, 2012 also raise questions about why our foreign service personnel were not better protected in Muslim countries in that volatile part of the world on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, particularly after violent protests began to rage in Egypt.


The timeline for these events in North Africa on September 11, 2012 can be found at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81114.html?hp=t7_7.

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