The chicken apologies are coming home to roost

TOM BURGUM
Contributing Columnist
burgum@lbknews.com

President Obama and our United Nations Ambassador, Susan Rice, wants us to believe that the murder of our ambassador in Libya and three other Americans, is nothing more than senseless violence caused by an obscure video criticizing Muslims, a kind of diplomatic work-place violence. No one should be surprised that the eunuchs in the media parrot the administration view without critical thought or comment.

Truth is, it was the most deadly attack on Americans since September 11, 2001 and it happened on the 11th anniversary of that appalling day. It was not spontaneous, it was not caused by some obscure video has been available on public media for weeks despite Susan Rice’s special pleading on the Sunday talk shows. The Independent (UK), reported that the Benghazi embassy had been warned several days before of an impending al Qaeda attack. The attack itself was sophisticated with direct and supporting fire, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, and advanced information about a “safe” house were two of the Americans were killed.

Meanwhile, in Cairo, violent mobs stormed our embassy, destroyed our flag and replaced it with the black Islamic banner. In response to this, the U.S. embassy in Cairo attempted to apologize to the violent mob by criticizing those who would us free speech to “hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.” Why would anyone in the embassy think an apology would disband the mob? One reason might be is that Mr. Obama has been apologizing for the America he inherited right from the start.

It began with Mr. Obama telling the Arab world that our fear and anger over the 9/11 attack “led us to act contrary to our ideals.” Then he went to Turkey to ask for patience because America was still “working through some of the darker periods of our past.” He brought cheers in France with “there have been times when America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.” He bowed to the Saudis and thanked Daniel Ortega, the pompous little Marxist running Nicaragua, who had just gone on an anti-American tirade saying, “I’m very grateful that President Ortega didn’t blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.” Mr. Obama obviously believes our flawed past is a terrible burden.

On the other hand, maybe our past deserves a bit more respect, especially from Muslims and our president, as both have done pretty well by us. As Victor Davis Hanson wrote, “We saved Afghans from the Russians, Kuwaitis from Saddam, liberated Iraq, hectored Putin on Chechnya, tried to feed the Somalis, bombed Milosevic to save Kosovars and Bosnians, let in Arab dissidents from across the world, funded the Palestinians, Jordanians, and Egyptians, and on and on. Actually, not a bad record for a country with, as Mr. Obama said, “darker periods in our past.”

The video was an excuse, not a cause, for the latest outbreak of violence in the Muslim street. They don’t need much of an excuse. Sometimes it’s cartoons, maybe a book or movie, one time it was the Pope making a reference to an obscure Muslim text from the 14th Century. The goal, of course, is to intimidate and increasingly confused West into making more and more concessions to Muslim culture. The desired end will be when the world adopts Shari.

Unfortunately, Mr. Obama’s soft, apologetic diplomacy plays right into radical Islamic goals. The American representative in Cairo condemned “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims − as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions . . . We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

The meaning of this mealy-mouthed blather is, free speech is OK unless Muslim feelings are hurt. And, they mean only Muslim feelings. In this country you can put a crucifix in a jar of urine and it ends up in a museum. You can order Catholics to violate the precepts of their religion in order to impress your feminist base. Referring to Christian believers as “dumb rubes” gets you a slot on HBO − see Bill Mahr or Larry David.

The Egyptian president demanded that, Mr. Nakoula, the creator of the movie in question be arrested and punished.  Did Mohamed Morsi really believe he can order us to arrest an obscure American simply because he irritated Muslims? Probably not and his request was made simply to play to his base. Well, imagine his surprise when, as Mark Steyn noted, “Back in the land of the free, a large posse of heavily armed officers descends on his [Nakoula) apartment at midnight so that he can be ‘voluntarily’ taken into custody for alleged ‘probation violations’ − because as everyone knows, in civilized societies breach-of-probation orders are always served at midnight on a weekend when the dark is so much more conducive to persuading householders to ‘volunteer.”

What is so startling is that within 72 hours of Morsi’s demands, Mr. Nakoula is in a jail cell because this might placate the Muslim mobs that remain uninstructed about the niceties of free speech despite the best efforts of Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Rice and other administration minions.

If you really wonder what is going on it is very simple. Osama bin Laden once said, if given a choice, people will always pick the strong horse. We are no longer the strong horse. Mr. Obama sought to be liked rather than feared on the international stage. Now he is neither, and neither are we.

Now our weapon against those killing our diplomats and burn our flag is to tell Americans critical of Islam to shut up.

The chicken apologies are coming home to roost.