US Embassy Stormed in Cairo...

[byu71]

Oh, I get it, I just think it's a little too FoxNewsy for me.



I'm not voting for him again, but I think this notion is a quaint one that really has no grasp on the realities of governing. It's not like he ignored the situation or had to devote hours on end to brain-storming solutions to something. His team could present options to him as the situation developed and he could then delegate his decisions to them. Who's to say that he didn't do that? I don't think that governing involves sitting at a desk for a perquisite amount of time to satisfy some "too soon" notion of the opposition. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.



I do because it makes sense. The President is the leader, not the building. He has all the capabilities of conferencing and networking on the road as he does in his office, which is largely ceremonial.

Will you at least concede the Press see's it differently depending on who is in office?

Since you are less hypocritical than they, I will assume you wouldn't have given Bush crap over being at his Ranch like the press did?

[wuapinmon]

Will you at least concede the Press see's it differently depending on who is in office?

Since you are more perceptive than they, I will assume you wouldn't have given Bush crap over being at his Ranch like the press did?

Hell no! That brush wasn't going to clear itself!

[Solon]

I'm not one to think that this administration knew about it before it happened, despite the fact that I think Obama is a cowardly Marxist pussy who believes that appeasement is how to deal with enemies.

Until I see concrete evidence that he knew, I'll just say that this is a result of Obama's incompetence in foreign policy and his idiotic naivete that supporting the overthrow of an allied President in Egypt would never be a problem down the road.

I'd guess that there are "threats" against almost every US Embassy in the world, and I'd also guess that when discovered these "threats" are duly noted in some type of matrix and faithfully reported to the National Security Adviser. With so many threats, when one is made good it's easy to point fingers about warning signs.

The Conservative Americans' backlash against the Arab Spring puzzles me (not picking on you, Il Pad, esp. in this our week of greatest opposition). From the McNaughton painting to various other comments it seems that Constitution-First-Take-Back-The-Government types should commend people for rising up and seizing control of their state. Just because the new governments hate Israel doesn't de-legitimize them.

It's not all gloom. Much of the Middle East is progressing in democracy. The place where the US has stayed out is quickly turning into a Human Rights atrocity (Syria).

[Indy Coug]

The Conservative Americans' backlash against the Arab Spring puzzles me (not picking on you, Il Pad, esp. in this our week of greatest opposition). From the McNaughton painting to various other comments it seems that Constitution-First-Take-Back-The-Government types should commend people for rising up and seizing control of their state. Just because the new governments hate Israel doesn't de-legitimize them.

In the simplest, most succinct terms: the problem with the Arab Spring is that it appears the result will be a different form of tyranny.

[creekster]

I'd guess that there are "threats" against almost every US Embassy in the world, and I'd also guess that when discovered these "threats" are duly noted in some type of matrix and faithfully reported to the National Security Adviser. With so many threats, when one is made good it's easy to point fingers about warning signs.

The Conservative Americans' backlash against the Arab Spring puzzles me (not picking on you, Il Pad, esp. in this our week of greatest opposition). From the McNaughton painting to various other comments it seems that Constitution-First-Take-Back-The-Government types should commend people for rising up and seizing control of their state. Just because the new governments hate Israel doesn't de-legitimize them.

It's not all gloom. Much of the Middle East is progressing in democracy. The place where the US has stayed out is quickly turning into a Human Rights atrocity (Syria).

It all depends on how you look at it. If your goal is democracy even if it means swallowing your own global interests, then I can see why you are surprised. If your goal is to improve rights but also to simultaneously keep your global positions, then you should be much less surprised.

And Syria is a bad example. I guess I could say I am surprised how eagerly some progressives (not picking on you) are in urging us to intervene there on behalf of what may just be the same boss in different headgear. We have never been a close ally with Syria. You may recall the current leader's old man was a Soviet pawn in the day.

You are surely correct about the threats to our emabssies being common and steady. OTOH, on September 11 in the arab world you might want to wacth a little more closely.

It is too early to conclude if they were alseep at the switch, but it doesnt look to good to me, in light of the disarray with which the aftermath has been handled. Of course, I hear the fund raising went well in Vegas and that new Samuel jackson video should be really cool.

[byu71]

I'd guess that there are "threats" against almost every US Embassy in the world, and I'd also guess that when discovered these "threats" are duly noted in some type of matrix and faithfully reported to the National Security Adviser. With so many threats, when one is made good it's easy to point fingers about warning signs.

The Conservative Americans' backlash against the Arab Spring puzzles me (not picking on you, Il Pad, esp. in this our week of greatest opposition). From the McNaughton painting to various other comments it seems that Constitution-First-Take-Back-The-Government types should commend people for rising up and seizing control of their state. Just because the new governments hate Israel doesn't de-legitimize them.

It's not all gloom. Much of the Middle East is progressing in democracy. The place where the US has stayed out is quickly turning into a Human Rights atrocity (Syria).

I am wondering here, so I hope based on my wondering I don't get called an anti-semitic SOB.

Israel's population is 7 million. How much $$, blood, sweat and tears do we the US spend every year protecting those 7 million people.

We could probably absorb them and be happy to do so. They are an industrious, bright, educated society.

As we are doing so we could become energy independent and after both scenario's are complete, we could leave these Middle East democracies to fend for themselves. We could tell them, we no longer have any interest in your area. If you F with us we will blow you off the map.

Nevermind, that's probably my old age acting up again.

[Indy Coug]

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"US President Barack Obama's Middle East policy is in ruins. Like no president before him, he tried to win over the Arab world. After some initial hesitation, he came out clearly on the side of the democratic revolutions. … In this context, he must accept the fact that he has snubbed old close allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Egyptian military. And now parts of the freed societies are turning against the country which helped bring them into being. Anti-Americanism in the Arab world has even increased to levels greater than in the Bush era. It's a bitter outcome for Obama."

"Obama was naive to believe that one only needed to adopt a new tone and show more respect in order to dispel deep-seated reservations about the free world. In practice, the policies of the Obama administration in the region were not as naive as they may have seemed at times, and the Americans have always been much more involved in the Middle East than the passive Europeans. But Washington has provided the image of a distracted superpower in the process of decline to the societies there. This image of weakness is being exploited by Salafists and al-Qaida, who are active in North Africa from Somalia to Mali."

"One thing is clear: If jihadists believe they can attack American installations and kill an ambassador on the anniversary of Sept. 11, then America's deterrent power has declined considerably. For a superpower, it is not enough just to want to be loved. You have to scare the bad guys to keep them in check."

...

[Maximus]

I am wondering here, so I hope based on my wondering I don't get called an anti-semitic SOB.

Israel's population is 7 million. How much $$, blood, sweat and tears do we the US spend every year protecting those 7 million people.

We could probably absorb them and be happy to do so. They are an industrious, bright, educated society.

As we are doing so we could become energy independent and after both scenario's are complete, we could leave these Middle East democracies to fend for themselves. We could tell them, we no longer have any interest in your area. If you F with us we will blow you off the map.

Nevermind, that's probably my old age acting up again.

Go back to the 1940s and tell the US not to refuse refuge to the Jews.

[Solon]

It all depends on how you look at it. If your goal is democracy even if it means swallowing your own global interests, then I can see why you are surprised. If your goal is to improve rights but also to simultaneously keep your global positions, then you should be much less surprised.

So, by this reasoning, democratically-elected American force should be able to push around or prop up or otherwise manipulate foreign nations in its own interests. Western ideals take a backseat to political and economic self-interest.

I'm not surprised, but I think people should acknowledge the compromise in their values. I'm also not naive enough to think it doesn't, or even shouldn't happen. I'm all for protecting American interests, yet perhaps it's time to revise what American interests really are.

It all reminds me of the "Melian Dialogue" written by Thucydides to describe the Athenians' negotiations in 416 BCE with the people of tiny Melos during the Peloponnesian War. Athens wanted Melos in their alliance. Melos wanted to remain neutral and criticized the Athenians for starting war unprovoked. The Athenians asserted that the same rules don't apply to both Athens and to Melos, because one is powerful and the other is weak.

So then Athens killed all of Melos' men, and sold the women & children into slavery. Democracy in action.

[byu71]

Go back to the 1940s and tell the US not to refuse refuge to the Jews.

Damn republicans and their anti-immigrant attitudes.

[UtahDan]

One thing I was thinking....embassies are incredibly hardened. This place was not the embassy. Was it unwise for the ambassador not to be in the embassy on 9/11? Just a thought.

Also why don't ambassador and embassy begin with the same letter? Hmm?

[Moliere]

In the simplest, most succinct terms: the problem with the Arab Spring is that it appears the result will be a different form of tyranny.

I've said it before but most revolutions (okay, the only ones I'm familiar with) take a long time to happen. France went through 5 revolutions in the past 220 years to get where they are now. The first revulsion led to tyranny, but it gave the people a taste of freedom and was very important to later revolutions, which weren't as violent or bloody.

I've got a feeling it's going to take the Arab world longer than 220 years to break their Islamic Theocracy. Let's not expect them to accept and implement democracy overnight.

[kccougar]

You guys arguing over the administration's policies toward the middle east are way off the mark. This is all just because of a youtube video.

http://freebeacon.com/carney-protest...united-states/

[YOhio]

Great article by Salman Rushdie about his life during the height of the fatwa furor. I read it today and thought it quite interesting in light of the events of this past week.

[Pelado]

You guys arguing over the administration's policies toward the middle east are way off the mark. This is all just because of a youtube video.

http://freebeacon.com/carney-protest...united-states/

Wow. Does he think that anyone will believe that?