Truths

On September 11, 2012, eleven years after radical Islamists killed over 3,000 Americans on American soil, groups of radical Islamists attacked American Embassies - also American soil - in Egypt and Libya. In the Libyan incident, the American Ambassador and three others were murdered by the radicals.

The supposed incitement for these acts is the existence on the Internet of a cheaply made, disgusting and moronic diatribe against the Prophet Mohamed made by an American "film maker" who deserves no additional mention or attention. The "film" was put up on YouTube in July and had garnered the microscopic attention it deserved - until it was put to use by evil people who used it to inflame hatred toward America in the Middle East by insinuating the ridiculous idea that the film somehow reflected American ideology.

I have seen this morning very little in the way of outrage on the part of anyone in the Obama administration (standard lip service to "condemnation" of the events notwithstanding). More disturbingly, I've seen very few responses to these attacks from personal friends and colleagues that actually blame the radical Islamists. Instead, I've seen a raft of criticism of the idiot who made the childish movie, carrying with it the unmistakable implication that the events in Egypt and Libya are justified.

Enough.

Listen. These are truths:

• America has been attacked. Period.
• A responsible and prudent president would immediately remove all American personnel from Egypt and Libya and stop all American financial aid to both countries until further notice.
• A responsible and prudent president would issue a strong statement notifying the world that these acts will not stand; that the culprits will be found and punished; and that any evidence that any government of any nation had a hand in either of the attacks will result in swift and certain retaliation against such governments.
• A responsible and prudent president would not allow his administration to release any statements decrying the anti-religious speech of a single stupid American citizen, but would rather issue a strong statement pointing out that the very reason radical Islamists hate America is that its citizens have the right to say awful and outrageous and offensive things without fear of retaliation - that, in fact, the only speech worth protecting is offensive speech.
• A responsible and prudent president would mobilize the armed forces of this country and have them on full alert, so as to send a message to the rest of the world that America does not get attacked - particularly for reasons having to do with the expression of ideas, no matter how repulsive - without consequences.
• There was no "Arab Spring." The "democracy movement" we're witnessing in the Middle East is not a movement for freedom; it is simply a repeat of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, writ large. With the aid and support of an enormously naive American government, the Muslim Brotherhood has been given the reins in Egypt, providing the radicals in Iran with a well-funded and sophisticated ally with which to wage war against the West. We risked American lives and treasure to ensure the removal of Muammar Gaddafi from Libyan power, only to have those whom we freed attack and kill the American ambassador to their country and drag his body through the street.
• Radical Islam and its desire to destroy Israel and America (but not until it has satisfied its bloodlust to brutally murder as many individual Israelis as possible first) did not go away after September 11, 2001. It has merely been waiting patiently for the right moment to strike again.  And with an American president in power who is either (giving him the benefit of the doubt) so foolishly idealistic about wanting America to not be seen as imperialistic that he makes himself weak, or (more likely) simply unqualified to understand how to behave as the American president, radical Islam has found its moment.

I don't think Mitt Romney would make a particularly good president. But I do think he understands how to react on days like today. And Barack Obama - for whatever reason - does not. And it's days like today that trump every other kind of day.

A version of this post appears on Mark's personal blog, Smoggy Don's Loudmouth Soup.