“Arab Spring” Freezes Over!

By William L. Garvin

Sometimes words just fail.  There is no way they can explain what our eyes were seeing this past week.  There also was no way we could believe what our ears were hearing.  Finally, there was no way to express the sorrow for the deaths of more fine Americans in another terrorist attack.

One has to wonder why our Cairo embassy would bring attention to an obscure YouTube video for an even more obscure movie.  They were apologizing to Muslims before the protests had even begun.  Why did they repeatedly defend their apology in cyberspace in a “tweet war” with those who disagreed?  Why would Jay Carney, the presidential Press Secretary, insult the intelligence of the American public and the world at large by saying the riots in over twenty-three countries had nothing to do with anger at America and American policies?  Instead, he asked us to suspend all logic and rational thought and believe the only issue was Muslim anger with a movie that none have seen.

Maybe he hadn’t seen the news coverage where President Obama was being burned in effigy.  Maybe he hadn’t seen the flags of the United States and Israel being burned everywhere.  Maybe he hadn’t heard the chants of “Obama, Obama, we are all Osama” or “death to America.”  Maybe he didn’t hear Democrats talk twenty-one different times at their convention about the killing of Osama Bin Laden.  Maybe he didn’t know these demonstrations started on the anniversary of 9/11.  Maybe he forgot that many of these countries had huge crowds dancing in the streets as the Twin Towers collapsed and thousands of Americans died.  Maybe he’s afraid to admit they still hate freedom and that’s not going to change.

It’s clear that extremists will use any excuse to justify their savage behavior.  Remember, they have already killed because of a newspaper cartoon.  Somehow they see a moral equivalency between disrespectful words and murder.  The slightest insult sends them into homicidal frenzies.  It’s hard to comprehend their savage rage.  Libyan media outlets and European press are reporting that Ambassador Stevens was subjected to humiliating atrocities before he was murdered.  The reports indicate treatment similar to the mutilation of Quadaffi.  It’s hard to believe that these people are even human.

Now the White House has contacted Google and “asked” them to review their policies and determine whether or not the video “meets their guidelines.”  The press has identified the filmmaker and because of that, he is in hiding and under guard.  Some are calling for his prosecution because of the insults to Islam and Mohammed.  Does anyone remember calls for prosecution when an artist immersed a crucifix in a jar of urine or covered a painting of the Virgin Mary with elephant dung?  Of course not!  White House favorite, Bill Maher, is also a movie maker.  One of his works was RELIGULOUS.  The majority of the movie is his predictable mocking of Christianity but the last twenty minutes also mocks Islam.  Will there be a fatwa against Maher and HBO?  What about our President who accepted $1 million from this “movie maker” who insulted Islam?  What about the Hollywood movie currently being produced to glorify the President’s killing of bin Laden?  Will that incite more riot and violence?  Remember, guns don’t kill people; movies do!

We are also told to believe that this winter of discontent is not representative of these countries as a whole, or their peoples as a whole, nor the religion of Islam as a whole.  Then praytell, where are all the so-called moderates?  Where is the public outcry and condemnation from within and without these countries and from their religious leaders as a whole?  The silence is thundering.  These are countries that have no problem accepting our foreign aid with one hand and stabbing us in the back with the other.  These countries vote against United States interests at the United Nations ninety percent of the time.

The early evidence also indicates that the Libyan “security forces” aided and abetted the terrorists.  There is no indication that a single Libyan charged with this responsibility was even wounded, let alone killed.  Our Embassy and Consulate are American territory.  This invasion and murder of our citizens show that “unconditional love” has not worked.  Neither has unconditional foreign aid.  Until these nations show that they can discharge their security responsibilities faithfully, until they show they can act in a human and civilized manner, all assistance should have strings attached and be performance based.  It’s still wrong to bite the hand that feeds you!