From Huffingtonpost.com:
A host of Republican foreign policy officials were quick to blast the “utter disaster” that was Romney’s response.
Romney’s reference to an “apology for America’s values” was directed at a statement the U.S. Embassy in Cairo put out on Tuesday morning, but that statement, which was itself responding to the outrage over the anti-Islamic film, was issued before the embassy was attacked, despite Romney’s statement to the contrary. What’s more, the statement does not apologize for America’s values, but rather supports a founding American value, religious tolerance, while referencing the “universal right of free speech.” The statement in full:
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.
The above is certainly not what I consider an apology. On the other hand, it isn’t nuking anyone so perhaps that is why it is considered an apology.
Thanks, Moon! I had not seen the entire message before.
Where did Romney lie? Because he called that an apology?
Because I call that an apology.
Instead of mentioning it at all, of all days…9/11, they should have either kept silent or demanded apologies for the offensive statements found in Mid-Eastern media. This goes BOTH ways. But it seems that respect is only supposed to flow one way. They can public demand the deaths of millions, insult Americans, or, for that matter, any Western culture, commit blood libel, etc…but we volunteer a useless statement?
I say useless because its obvious that the embassy knew what was coming. And any statement of apology just fuels the “righteous” anger.
Cargo, why do you think you are in the position of second guessing those in the embassy? Don’t you think they knew what they were dealing with better than you? Do you think they got up and decided they were going to talk about that stupid movie or do you think maybe there was word on the street that made them address it?
Those are the people in the trenches, not those of us sitting in our easy chairs sitting behind a computer.
What can I say to make you understand that I expect more from Americans than I do from Bedouins who have lived under dictatorships their entire life.? yes, there are Muslims who chant to have everyone killed. Why would you want to get down on that level? Why would you want to stir them up? Why would you poke a snake handler in the eye with a stick?
They aren’t like us.
I also don’t think everyone from Libya is like those snake handlers. I differentiate.
I beg you…stop thinking on their level. In our country, we are respectful, at least pubically, of other people’s religion.
“..by any mean necessary” are the rules for the race for the Presidency.
Every American embassy and consultate in that tinderbox area of the world should have been on the highest alert on September 11. Did the American intelligence fall down on the job?
Did someone know that the Ambassador was going to be at the Consulate in Benghasi
at that time? (the Embassy is in Tripoli)
Why wouldn’t the attack have taken place in Tripoli?
Was it an coincidence that the attack took place on 9/11?
Embassies and consulates abroad have numerous native employees. Easy to get
info about what goes on from secretaries, gardeners, maids, pot washers, …..
Those are good questions. The world is not safe…not even close.
Interesting report on the Cairo statements and who authorized them.
The twitter conversation in comments is also interesting.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/09/12/inside_the_public_relations_disaster_at_the_cairo_embassy
@Moon-howler
“Cargo, why do you think you are in the position of second guessing those in the embassy? Don’t you think they knew what they were dealing with better than you?”
Apparently I am right. And the State Dept confirmed that when they had the exact same concerns over the wording of that statement and refused for it to be released. So, no, they did NOT know better than me.
That wasn’t the question. The question was, don’t you think they knew better than you what they were dealing with?
If they defied the chain of command then they will be dealt with…but they were there and we weren’t.
So tell me, are you going to blame the embassy or blame Obama? You obviously want to blame someone.You have been complaining about that statement and calling it an apology since it first passed in front of your eyes.
I don’t mind Cargo’s view on events because as far as I know he has no interest in running for President and no offense Moon but I suspect very few Lybians read your blog. I do mind however Romney running his mouth(they do follow American Politics) We have one President and it isn’t Romney yet. If he wants to tell lies he should restrict them to domestic problems and leave global implications to people who have some understanding of the subject. So far he’s offended Russia, China and English Olympics, threatened Iran and made all our Diplomats jobs more difficult. I believe that’s enough for one election cycle.
Romney was in a no-win situation yesterday. If he said nothing, he could later be accused of tacit approval of the handling of the crisis. And given the length of time before the apology was disavowed, I bet it would have been allowed to stand if Romney said nothing. If he waited until later to say something, he would have been accused of Monday morning quarterbacking. By saying something immediately, he was accused of interfering …. so he was going to be criticized no matter what action he took.
One could tell that Obama was upset yesterday. He canceled his normal daily plans to focus on the situation. Oh wait … I am mistaken, he went on a campaign trip yesterday.
He could have said he’s not yet being briefed on National Security issues and he will wait for the facts. He could have asked why is that process taking so long; it was apparent in early June he would have the nod.
@kelly_3406
No one would criticize someone for keeping their mouth shut until they had the facts.
No one would criticize a candidate for keeping his mouth shut in the middle of a crisis.
I am trying to figure out what anyone did “wrong” other than Romney.
The Embassy in Yemen has also been attacked.
@kelly_3406
It probably wouldn’t have been disavowed if the embassy wasn’t overrun.
Who cares? I feel like I am in an assylum.
@Lyssa
Excellent point. But I do not think any facts have come out that would indicate that Romney was wrong.
It is interesting that Romney has not received any national security briefings yet. I was under the impression that those are supposed to begin almost immediately after the nomination.
@Moon-howler
Are you running the asylum or are you an inmate with the rest of us?
I just do not have much sympathy for this particular criticism of Romney. During the dark days of the insurgency in Iraq, many of the elected officials wanting Romney to shut up now were defending their free speech right to criticize the war and strategy. I defended that right. If freedom of sppeech can only be exercised when things are going right, what good is it? That’s one of the key rights we were fighting for.
Candidate Obama was very critical of Bush’s handling of the Iraq War. No one criticized him for it. Candidate Reagan was very critical of Carter’s handling of the Iran hostage crisis. He was criticized very heavily for it. Romney was very critical of Obama. You may disagree with Romney’s stance, but there was nothing wrong with the criticism.
I agree with Romney’s stance. Whenever a cartoon/movie/artwork comes out that is offensive to Christianity or Judaism, our embassies do not put out statements condemning the work or inappropriate use of the first amendment. Our embassies therefore should not do so in cases that could offend Muslims. As it stood, it was an official statement of the U.S. government. There was nothing wrong with Romney’s attack against Obama for it.
@kelly_3406
Why should he receive national security briefings. Virgil Goode is also running for president. Should he get them also? How about Lydon Laruche? Should those briefings have been sent to prison?
Romney has not been elected and if he keeps going like he has been going, he won’t stand a chance.
Romney is giving his opinion. He should wait for facts upon which to base his rather foolish opinions.
@kelly_3406
Here we go again. This one did this and that one did that. Do we honestly have to go back to Reagan?
There are ways to disagree and ways not to. Calling the sitting President of the United States of America “disgraceful” in the middle of a crisis is totally unacceptable in my opinion and in the minds of many in his party.
I personally believe his behavior makes him unfit for the office he seeks. He sounds more like Cindy Sheehan since you want to trot out a rogue’s gallery.
Disgraceful??? Shame shame shame on Candidate Romney.
All nominees receive briefings after they’ve accepted. It’s not a maybe maybe not policy. It has taken longer than usual for Romney to be included. I am sure there are one or two levels – certainly after an election the President elect is involved at all levels.
Romney should have waited. His motivation for commenting was not national security it was to make the current administration look bad. He can do that after the facts are presented to him.
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/30/romney-to-get-intelligence-briefings/
@Lyssa
I am not sure that is very reassuring. There are many levels of security briefings though.
You aren’t suggesting that policy should be selective by the sitting administration?
Chris Stevens was missing for 12 hours yesterday. Meanwhile, Romney blundered on.
Apparently he had been taken to the hospital by Libyan police after being horribly abused by a gang of thugs.
@Lyssa
I am suggesting that congress doesn’t get the same briefings that the president gets.
Will Virgil Goode get the briefings also?
I’m pretty sure I know that Foreign Relations has some pretty high clearance. Did you read the llink at all? Regarding Virgil Goode, as I said there must be some validation process regarding recognized parties/candidates.
For Pete’s sake I’m agreeing with you. Romney should have said nothing until he had the facts. He should pointed out that the process is taking a little long…..instead.
yes, I read it. I still had other questions.
The Democrats are taking full advantage by aiming their laser focus on Romney’s words rather than our muddled Middle East policies and the lives lost. The fact that Obama is campaigning in Vegas today speaks volumes about his priorities. Since our genius president has more time to digest hundreds of pages of intelligence updates each day, rather than sit through a brief morning summary of the biggest threats, I guess there’s no chance he could have missed the signs that this tragedy was coming.
@Emma
I am also. I think he really screwed up. As the person on the blog who defended Romney for a long time, I am here to admit I was wrong about him. I have seen the light. You all were right about him. I was wrong.
@Emma
He has Hillary for that. A president can be contacted and accessed anywhere, day or night, living or dead.
I saw a show last night where someone toured Air Force 1. They now have the ability to address the American people from the air without ever touching down. That capability is thanks to the limitations of 9/11.
I will give Romney credit for staying the course, even after being notified of the correct time line. Now we know he will not back down even when proven wrong. But I do not know why he is doubling down.
re the security briefings – I do hope that the NSA and others do not just sit around on all the issues and wait for the President – any President – to do something when our security is at risk. It is very easy to look back at other issues when a President was briefed several times, and failed to act.
Not backing down even when wrong might work well in a business environment but certainly not as well in a diplomatic event. Will Ryan step up in that role?
@Pat Herve
Not showing up for the briefings…meh. If his appointees can’t get information to him as needed, THEY need to be replaced. Funny how the press has ignored this though. If Bush missed any meetings and something happened, he was roundly criticized. Its almost as if….it was all political. I just hope that he’s reading the briefs while traveling to all the fund raisers he’s held and the golf games.
Romney’s not backing down because he feels that the principle, the core of his criticism is valid, even though his timing was off.
Are there meds for victim mentality? I have certainly heard a lot of whining on behalf of Bush recently. He would be embarrassed by it.
Why must everything be evaluated by …well so and so did it?
Let’s just discuss what Obama has missed that he shouldnt have. It doesnt matter one flying fig what George Bush did. I don’t think Bush missed anything. Of course, I am not a Bush enemy.
@Moon-howler
It snot a victim mentality. Its not about what Bush did or didn’t do. I was talking about HOW THE PRESS ACTS. Its a double standard.
Other than that….I agree with you.
I think Kelly and Emma bring up a good point.
Obama is in a bad spot here. 2 months before the election – if he continues to campaign he looks bad. If he stops and focuses on Africa he looses campaign momentum in a tight election. He won’t be able to get anything resolved by November yet like Iran the issue here is ‘small’ enough that the People may not mind switching horses to allow someone else (for example, Romney) to have a go. If BHO sends in the Marines and tanks and drones (Marines and Navy ships are on-site or close) he’ll piss off his base (the ones that were ok with him assasinating Americans and continuing the “Bush Doctrine” but were ok with him doing it). If he is soft on his response, Mitt will attack him and may take moderates..
What to do? Oh the joy of command.
I do think that these violent strikes are a repudiation of the Obama Doctrine and a slap in to the face of the Grand Obama Appology Tour.
He only looks bad to people who who weren’t going to vote for him in the first place.
Put aside your fears. He will be re-elected.
Candidate Obama had absolutely NO PROBLEM attacking and blaming President Bush the very day that 9 servicemen were killed in an Afghan attack in 2008. The hypocrisy of the White House and the Democrats in deliberately trying to shut Romney down on foreign policy is absolutely stunning.
What did he blame Bush for? He wasn’t running against him. That sounds like low hanging fruit.
What fear? I don’t fear Obama getting re-elected. May be the best thing that ever happens to our Republic.
The GOP will learn that pushing a liberal democrat from MA as our ‘conservative choice’ was a big mistake. The Democrats will have had 8 years where their game plan has only brought us higher unemployment, more government dependency, and less civil liberties.
Maybe the people ought to learn the lesson of voting for evil…or the ‘lesser evil’.
You mistake me for someone that advocates for ‘anyone other than Obama’. That’s not me at all. I want us to set a path to prosperity and freedom.
Neither mainstream candidate offers that.
But, I will say that if we’re going down the tubes Romney may be better at managing the process as he’s got more experience shutting down poor performing organizations.
Emma, you mean this? http://youtu.be/AXNF4_09BOI
that would be it@marinm
The GOP will learn that pushing a liberal democrat from MA as our ‘conservative choice’ was a big mistake. The Democrats will have had 8 years where their game plan has only brought us higher unemployment, more government dependency, and less civil liberties.
I think if you’ll check the actual unemployment figures, unemployment has been going down thru-out Obama’s term. Not quickly enough, but if the jobs bill hadn’t been filibustered in the Senate by Republicans, the level would be lower.
“Less civil liberties”- you have to be joking on this. Warrantless wiretapping, warrantless searches, unauthorized computer data gathering, incarceration without charges or bail hearings- all under Republican leadership. Please name the civil liberties that have been compromised under this Democratic administration.
The first paragraph in my previous post was supposed to be a quote from marinm:
“The GOP will learn that pushing a liberal democrat from MA as our ‘conservative choice’ was a big mistake. The Democrats will have had 8 years where their game plan has only brought us higher unemployment, more government dependency, and less civil liberties.”
I hit the “quote” tab, but I must have done something wrong. My bad!!
“I think if you’ll check the actual unemployment figures, unemployment has been going down thru-out Obama’s term. Not quickly enough, but if the jobs bill hadn’t been filibustered in the Senate by Republicans, the level would be lower.”
You are not factoring in people that have simply given up and are no longer counted in the calculations OR people that are under employed.
Try again.
““Less civil liberties”- you have to be joking on this. Warrantless wiretapping, warrantless searches, unauthorized computer data gathering, incarceration without charges or bail hearings- all under Republican leadership. Please name the civil liberties that have been compromised under this Democratic administration.”
If you mean that its OK for the President to assassinate US citizens without warrant or trial in and the continuation of those Bush policies (you can still call them the Bush policies but the truth is when Obama runs with them and expands them…they sorta turn into the Obama policies) along with the NDAA 2012 authorizing indefinite detentions… I guess if you ignore those and other things – sure he’s all peaches and cream.
Don’t worry. Obama will eliminate PATRIOT so we can all be free again. Oh, wait. He didn’t.
So, how again has he given us more freedoms? BTW, I do like how you ignored the whole government dependency thing – conceding that one, eh?
On the upside, 14.7 isn’t too bad I guess…..
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm