What A Mess

Spreading violence in the Middle East. Civil liberties under siege in America (here and here). Unprepared, clueless dolts running around in circles (We apologize. No we don't. Egypt is not an ally. Yes, it is. We didn't receive any warning of the attacks. Well, maybe we did. We're not going to answer any more questions about it.). The mainstream media doing its best to spin the whole flustercluck into a positive for the obama administration. And to top it off, in the middle of this crisis -- with the bodies of four Americans practically still warm -- the empty-chair-in-chief first takes advantage of their deaths for his own political purposes, then jets off to Las Vegas for a fund-raiser.

It's mid-morning as I'm typing this, but I already feel the need for a drink.

Make that several drinks.

Below are two articles that pretty much sum up the situation. The first points out the wide-spread extent of the attacks, and goes on to suggest that they are emblematic of the changing nature of the conflict between islamists and the West.

The second provides some pointed criticism of, and offers equally pointed advice to, obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

Both are worth reading in their entirety. (H/T here and here.)

Middle East protests: mobs attack six Western embassies as protesters fill streets

Stoned, burned, and pillaged, the West's diplomatic missions became the new front line in a war on the values for which their governments and societies stand.

That sentence does about as good a job as anything I've read of encapsulating what is going on. Read it again. This is not about some half-assed video. It's about a fundamental clash of values that's been going on for centuries, and will continue unabated until something drastic happens. More on that later.

The demonstrators were not this time complaining about western military intervention in their own countries; instead they were objecting to how western countries conduct their own affairs, their refusal to enact laws of blasphemy protecting Islam.

At least that was the pretext. What the United States and its allies must now be asking is this: have the last week's actions in fact been a conscious attempt to destabilise the region, and to use the opportunity of a policy of "soft engagement" led by President Barack Obama to assert a new radical agenda in which militants lead the way?

I'm afraid the answer is "yes," for reasons detailed in the next article.

Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, it's time to wake up and smell the global jihad

When the men who killed our ambassador to Libya were in the final stages of their preparation, Hillary Clinton was in the Cook Islands, being regaled by locals in traditional dress.  Her seemingly endless world tour has prioritized symbolism and pageantry over substance.  So too has the administration of her boss, Barack Obama, and the costs are now becoming clear.

This explains why Obama’s chief diplomat said of the Libya attack: “I asked myself—how could this happen?  How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?”

Madam secretary, it is time for you and your boss to wake up and smell the global jihad. 

There are people in this world—and not a small number of them—who share the vision bin Laden had and have the will and means to act.  No amount of apologizing for America, embracing our adversaries or mistreating our allies will change that. 

Hillary also said that the attack was the result of a “small and savage group.” 

Wrong again. 

Viewed correctly, the attack was perpetrated by a very large group.  Terrorism as we have known it since 9/11 is but the violent vanguard of the Islamist political ideology.  This ideology unifies diverse terrorists from Jemmah Islamiyah in Indonesia to Al-Shabaab in Somalia to Boko Haram in Nigeria to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the Haqqani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While the groups are diverse and at times antagonistic toward each other, their hatred of America unites them, and they work toward a generally common goal.  Behind them is a large body of people who cheer on and support Islamists—a minority of Muslims, but hardly a body of people we should ignore.

If we killed everyone in Al Qaeda tomorrow, we would still have a problem that Obama, Hillary and the Washington foreign policy establishment refuse to recognize. There is a tyrannical political force in the world that is waging war on us wherever it can—both politically and militarily.

On Obama’s watch, the Islamists have done very well.  They have taken over Egypt and are set to take over Syria and its chemical weapons arsenal without a change in US policy.  They look ahead to the day U.S. forces leave Afghanistan—which Obama has conveniently announced to them.  And in the country where modern Islamism first came to life at the nation-state level, Iran, the government is set to gain a nuclear weapons capability—another Obama legacy.

Recall the beginning of this post I said that the conflict between islamists and the West would continue unabated until something drastic happens. Well, as the above paragraph points out, the islamists are very close to gaining the means to ensure something drastic happens. Once they get their hands on weapons of mass destruction in one form or another, does anyone seriously believe they won't use them? This isn't the old Cold War, where a policy of Mutually Assured Destruction served to restrain relatively rational leaders on both sides. Rather, we're facing a culture that revers suicide bombers, and thinks that dying in jihad is the ultimate act. If they succeed in acquiring nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, we'll see a day that makes 9-11 look insignificant in comparison.

I don't consider myself a stereotypical right-wing nut job, but if history has taught us anything it's that islamists aren't rational. They can't be trusted, reasoned with, or appeased. They're like a nest of vipers. The only way to deal with them is to wipe them from the face of the earth.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Steven's Body Being Dragged Through The Streets Of Benghazi