It seems as though he’s saying that if they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. You, know, the Chicago way.
Anyway, don’t want to put words in his mouth. I’ll just comment for myself, and say that the appropriate response depends entirely on the degree of culpability, if any, of the current Libyan government. I’d expect, at minimum, aggressive steps taken by Libya to identify and prosecute the murdererers. If not, then escalating economic penalties, with severing of diplomatic ties as a maximum.
One thing I do not see as being of much immediate value (absent details of any Libyan governement participation) would be military retaliation. These things happen in part because, a lot of people in North Africa and the Middle East, rightly or wrongly, think the US is out to get them. Bombing the shit out of a random bunch of people in retaliation may satisfy our inner Rambo, but it would tend to reinforce this view.
Diplomacy is a two way street, the US did not “go and setup” embassies by force except for Iraq maybe:p If these governments cannot or will not take measures to protect embassy staff they need to be withdrawn.
I saw a Romney-camp talking head on CNN ths morning (might have been Williamson, but I’m not sure) who essentially stood by the statement, talking about the administration’s “accountability” for the situation.
Still, even if the deaths were not yet reported, U.S. embassies were being attacked by angry extremists, Romney blamed Obama. That’s some pretty sick bullshit there already. That people subsequently got killed – which was not entirely unpredictable – doesn’t make the statement less reprehensible.
This wasn’t an action by the Libyan government, so we have no reason to cut off diplomatic ties with them. I expect the Marines have a way of making an embassy safe in Libya. There was a tragic miscalculation made here, but they’ll learn from that mistake.
Marines don’t protect the embassy. Outside security is handled by local contractors. Security for the Ambassador is handled by the Regional Security Officer from the Bureau of Diplimatic Security (with some back up by the Marines). The main function of the Marine Security Detachment is to ensure that classified documents and equipment do not fall into the wrong hands. The only way you change that is to build a multi-billion dollar boondoggle like the compound in Iraq. Without the cooperation and action of local authorities it is not possible to make an embassy safe.
Agreed. The Obama administration is “accountable” for the situation in the sense that they underestimated the security threat, but angry mobs are all over the place, and it’s a cheap shot indeed to say that Obama bears any responsibility for this one. Unless you want to argue that this wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t aided in the fall of Kadafi, but I don’t think that would be a wise argument to make.
I won’t fight that statement because as we approach our first quarter millenium birthday we have yet to burn our capital to the ground. Well, not permanently anyway. But I’d also point out that the only way for us to get rid of our government, should the people become displeased with it, is to openly rebel against it–and that would get very messy very quickly given the people have numbers, but the government has the deadliest army in human history. Oh, and should there be widespread talk of open rebellion with broad support from the electorate, DHS would stomp that right the fuck out. Voting for different cogs (which is what I assume you meant) merely gives you different cogs but the machinery remains effectively unchanged.
Are we hijacking a Middle East thread? How’s that for turnaround.
But, Islam as such can never be defeated, the way Communism and Nazism were defeated. Worldwide, one human being in five is a Muslim; 100 years ago, one human being in five was a Muslim; almost certainly, 100 years from now, one human being in five will be a Muslim. The infidel world just has to deal with them.
Islam itself is not the enemy. Arab & Persian culture is. Those are readily identifiable (and boycotted) geographical areas. They want us out? Fine. Let’s leave and take our ball with us. Their choce has historically been: take our money in exchange for being our battlefield, or live poor and free to slaughter each other. I say we liberate them from the oppression of Western money.
Personally, I think Obama should send Terry Jones over to the embassy to explain his movie and give him a chance to convert the protestors. That would seem fair to me.
