Our Ambassador to a country we just fought for has been killed there in a protest triggered by an anti-Muslim film, made by and/or in America or connected to America.)
Typically and with cheap abandon, Mitt Romney jumped the gun and took a low road, blasting the Obama administration and claiming they’d issued an apology which they had not. He’s carelessly adding fuel to what is certain to be (is) an eruption of political finger-pointing. Worse though, he again is less interested in those Americans who died for their country. He didn’t even wait for the event to play itself out or check his facts before he went on the attack. Not very presidential.
“It’s disgraceful,” Romney’s statement, which was released late Tuesday night, read, “that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”
The comments that outraged Romney were issued, not by the White House, but by the Ambassador to Egypt (before Stevens and the others were killed in Libya) in an attempt to calm things down and protect the Embassy and his staff. Ambassadors are powerful; they are empowered to and expected to respond quickly in the best interests of the Embassy.
UPDATE: This is the statement issued by the Embassy yesterday before things deteriorated:
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.
Here’s some more on the film (not Romney related):
One of the things fueling the protest is the misconception that, as in Egypt, films made in the U.S. must have government approval, according to this article in The Atlantic:
The movie . . . has received attention far beyond its reach, which would be modest if not for obsessively outraged media . . . That doesn’t mean this incident
will become(was originally) anything more than a bizarre moment of cross-cultural misunderstanding (the protesters seem to assume that, as in Egypt, movies must secure the state’s approval), but that it could go so far is yet another reminder of the tensions just beneath the surface in Egypt.What is clear is that (loony) American Pastor, Terry Jones, is involved, vigorously promoting the English language version. (Pastor Jones, in case you’ve forgotten, is the careless fool who burned the Koran in front of TV cameras, even after Sect’y of Defense Robert Gates pleaded with him not to do it.)
According to Reuters:
U.S. pastor Terry Jones, who had inflamed anger in the Muslim world in 2010 with plans to burn the Koran, said he had promoted “Innocence of Muslims”, which U.S. media said was produced by an Israeli-American property developer.
Jones, a pastor in Florida whose latest stunt fell on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, triggered riots in Afghanistan in 2010 with his threat to burn the Koran.
According to Haaretz:
An Israeli filmmaker went into hiding on Tuesday after his movie attacking Islam’s Prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by Muslims on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and in Libya, where one American was killed.
Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.
(Well, thanks Sam and Pastor Jones. Great work there.)
Protesters angered over Bacile’s film opened fire on and burned down the U.S.consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing an American State Department officer on Tuesday. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.
Bacile, a California real estate developer in his fifties who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam’s flaws to the world. “
Today was NOT the time fpr Romney Political shots against HIS President…
His fellow GOPer’s have NOT followed suit……
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for….sorry
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Why james, like I’ve never made a typo! Yeah, Romney just doens’t get this foreign policy stuff.
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This happens and the first thing Romney does is blast Obama for a (totally approppriate) statement he never made? What a classless piece of crap he is.
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Hey BTFH, he also revealed how ill prepared he would be as a head of State.
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Or nil prepared even 😉
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Perhaps Mitt should have done a McCain and suspended his campaign rather than stick his foot so completely in his mouth that it came out his ass. Just perhaps.
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That McCain moment was astonishing. Just astonishing. Reckless guy.
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Still — I changed my registration to vote for Mitt in the primary because he was the best of the lot. Imagine if Rick Perry were the nominee….
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Smart thing to do . . . I meant to as well, but didn’t. So shame on me!
That clown college of candidates . . . any one of them woould have been thrilled to push the button.
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Both of them.
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They just don’t get the concept of free speech, do they? This illustrates the gulf between the West and Islamic cultures and the difficulty we’ll continue to have (for generations?) until …. well, eventually it will end. But actually this pre-modern idea set is not so different from our own science-denying fringe who see the modern world as anti-religious.
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There seems to be a worldwide – albeit small – move toward fundamentalism in many religions.
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Right now, Moe, I am full of anger over Romney’s move to preemptively condemn our government and the President. I saw Romney give his statement on CNBC at noon today and he not only tried to interfere with the President’s and the government’s proper role in this flap but he poisoned the dialogue by repeating the ridiculous trope that the Obama administration had been “apologizing” to Islam. I’d better not say more now – I’m so angry I might regret it.
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I’m angry too Jim, especially when I see people who know better falling into the partisan script. Romney may not get it, but they do. Remember his scathing remarks about the Chinese dissident? He charged Obama with abandoning the guy at the exact moment that we were secretly getting him ot of China.
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Well, Romney has shown us that he is desperate and a jerk who is not ready for the high office of President. Gad. and we thought he was bad with his statements in the UK!
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And to think he doubled-down on his initial statements. Even he had no chance of getting my vote, I lost a lot of respect for Mitt Romney today.
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So did I Frank. I had gotten myself to a place where I was accepting that if by any chance Obama lost, Romney would right himself and act more like he did in Mass. But jeez . . .
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There has to be a positive side. Maybe, just maybe, enough of his followers get the message and don’t vote for him.
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Obama’s speech certainly sounded apologetic and sympathetic to me. Hence, Romney was right. As for that crap from Obama’s embassy to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt – it’s what I’ve come to expect and was worse than what Obama said.
But then, this comment won’t be popular here. You all disapprove of anything that bothers the cultists of the religion of animalistic outrage while seemingly enjoying Christianity.
You might want to think about that. I think this is going to come to blood and we’re going to have to clean up our own lands first. You might not want to be on the wrong side of that…
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Clean up our own lands first jonolan? How very eugenic of you!
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If you say so, Moe. Truth be told, I’ve always been ambivalent towards towards the eugenics movements of the past. To me they were a case of right idea married to bad criteria and poor implementation.
Still, we largely purged the Communists from America a generation ago and we need to conduct a similar, but much, much, much better managed, purge now.
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I’m speechless.
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