These are not the same videos. Sorry.
The FBI will be sent to Libya to investigate the deaths of the assassinated Americans. The State Department is viewing the events in Libya very differently from those at the other embassies in the region. The Libyan incident appeared to be well orchestrated and not spontaneous. It appeared to be a planned attack. There is a strong possibility that Al Qada was involved in Libya.
It is thought that the spontaneous protests at other sites is a general protest to the idiot film. Even a KFC was targeted by protesters. Their reasons for being there simply don’t make sense. Nothing anyone says matters.
Was the idiot movie a decoy? Were we distracted while Al Qada did its work? How hard would it be to get the average street thug wiling to throw a few rocks for their prophet?
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Too many people are trying to be experts. John McCain is running off at the mouth. Jay Carney is saying something else.
Imagine, so many experts. Our cup runneth over.
Romney needs to realize he is a candidate and to shut up. He doesn’t speak for this country. He needs to stop “communicating” with Israel.
His behavior during this crisis shows his lack of experience.
Absolutely Moon. I am convinced that our IQ (Ignorance Quotient) about Islam is at an all time high. The movie in question, “Innocence of Muslims” is available on You Tube. The amatuerishness (is there such a word?) of the film has to be seen to be believed. When I say our Isamic IQ is terrible, I mean this–you have to be able to put yourself in the mindset of the rioters. First of all, many are absolutely illiterate, second many live in countries where there is no such thing as a “First Amendment right to free speech” and third, their Islamic belief “demands” they accept the word of the imams who are preaching hate toward anything western. They live under repressive regimes where such a film would not have been allowed and if such a film was made, those Islamic governments would ruthlessly hunt down the makers. The man who made this film is allegedly an Egyptian Coptic Christian and it is fair to say they have not fared well under in Egypt or any other Islamic state. The claim he propagated that he was an Israeli was simply more gasoline on the fire of hatred.
We read one day that al Qaeda is dead or dying and then the next we read about something like this attack in Libya. We should never fool ourselves; we may have killed bin Laden but al Qaeda is far from dead or dying. Supposedly Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, one of the most famous Japanese naval admirals, said after the attack on Pearl Harbor, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” I fear this may be the case with al Qaeda–eleven years or war and the giant is still alive.
As I watched the transfers of the remains of the four Americans killed in Libya, I got goose pimples. It made me think of all those young men and women that have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and how the Bush administration denied the American public the honor of seeing the transfers of all those who had given the last full measure. I am not sure why they did this except that they knew in their heart of hearts that at least the war with Iraq was unjustified and hiding the results would keep the American public from knowing the truth. In some ways, the same might be said of the continued war with Afghanistan. Anyone who is a reader of history knows that Afghanistan has never been conquered. Alexander the Great came close but that was the last time. Our initial foray into Afghanistan was justified but then the Bush administration all but abandoned the effort to invade Iraq. Justification? Some now disproven allegations of WMD and other boogey men/weapons. Why are we still there? Despite our best efforts, including killing their leader, al Qaeda is still alive and the Taliban is still alive. Hell, Hamid Karzai is even negotiating with them and I suspect we are also. Some day the American public will wake up–seeing these returning caskets is perhaps the first step.
I don’t know but 2 more were killed there yesterday.
When our best men get killed by raging Muslim mobs, their blood is at least as much on the hands of the bastards who made that film or nincompoops like the Florida Koran-burning pastor as on the illiterate rabble who get all ginned up by this sort of thing. These Americans know that the reaction to their antics will be hostile and bloody, but they persist nonetheless. If I were a commander of troops in theatre, I would make a special visit to Terry Jones or provocateurs such as those who made the movie to tell them clearly that if any of my men are harmed because of their stunts, I will hold them personally responsible as enemies of the United States. My next home leave would not be a pleasant one for these people. First Amendment, sure. But the consequences for predictably getting people killed should be very unpleasant.
Standing ovation for Scout.
I am having a hard time understanding why Americans would be patting themselves on the back for not acting like fundamentalist Muslims. Why would they?
I don’t know a lot of Muslims but the ones I have known have been some of the kindest, most decent people imaginable. They wouldn’t have gotten caught up in what we saw on TV for any amount of money. I believe most Muslims are kind and decent people.
Most can mean a lot of things. There are approximately 6.8 Billion people in the world. 20% are Muslims or about 1.3-1.5 Billion people. We are seeing just a tiny fraction of of people who say they are Muslim.
It is extremely important that we don’t puff ourselves up over being superior to a bunch of rock throwers. Those rock throwers who are out there babbling some gutteral language to whomever will listen do not represent most of the Muslims in the world or even close to it.
The people we see out acting like “animals” are people who have lived under repressive regiems their entire lives. Their culture is different from ours.
I have grown weary of hearing/reading/seeing all the finger pointing. Yes. These types of people exist. How people behave depends on a lot of things. Location, CLASS, educational level, CLASS, outlook on life, CLASS….
I know perhaps a half dozen Muslims and they are all good souls. Haven’t seen a one of them burning an American flag, raging around, etc, etc, etc. The guy who made the film is a Coptic Christian. And yes, there is no doubt about it, Coptics don’t do well in Muslim countries nd they have been there longer than the Muslims! As Moon has pointed out, these rioters are a small, very small number of all of the Muslims–they are a few grains of sand on the beach.
One of my Muslim friends observed that a huge problem in the Muslim world is that many of the religion’s adherents are illiterate or nearly so. Their religious knowledge has a very high rote memorization quotient, they both not very subtle in their appreciation of their own religion, and they are easily incitable by incendiary demagogues. Rumour travels like wildfire in such settings. It is almost impossible to build firebreaks once a story starts to circulate.
@Scout
@Scout,
Thanks for the insight from within the ranks.
If Christians had huge pockets of members who were illiterate, would they behave much differently? Ask Joseph Smith.
I kept overlooking the obvious. It wasn’t class as much as the fundamental bedrock of class—literacy. I had forgotten that all that chanting was memorization.
It doesn’t explain everything, but I did find it a useful insight. Within the Christian community, I think one can discern a greater tendency toward religious intolerance and brittle, exclusive fundamental interpretations of Holy Scripture than among better educated elements. Gross generalization, I realize. My point is that illiteracy and low education levels make for more manipulable (not sure that’s a word) demagog-able mobs in a lot of contexts, but it clearly is a feature of modern Islam looked at in gross. Couple that with the absence of a central theological umpire (like, for example, the Pope), you get a lot of fuel supply, and not much fire-extinguishing equipment.
Actually, I think it explains a lot. Somehow, when watching people act like idiots over something you know it isn’t true, it’s helpful to have a reason. What you said makes as much sense as anything else does. What we see on TV resembles a primal rampage. Oddly enough, the scenery never seems to change…I have seen the same thing as long as I have as a television.