Approaching Reality

Jay Carney approaches reality when he says the embassy sieges are not the result of American policy. But he doesn't quite make it that far.



He has a point. The fact is, when you see those still-trendy "COEXIST" bumper stickers on that Prius in front of you, only one of those symbols has a reputation for not playing well with others.

Not that all Moslems are nutballs easily provoked to rage. The vast majority aren't. But nonetheless, there is an amazing correlation between violent regions and the borders of Islam.

So no, I don't blame President Obama's policies for the embassy sieges and attack.

But the idea that a movie caused the mayhem is ridiculous. If movies justified this type of violence, We'd have burned down Hollywood right after Sahara debuted. Or Troy. I still feel like days of rage for that one, now that I think about it.

But Carney side steps the real question about our policy. No, we can't worry about whether our policies inflame nutballs. They're nutballs. What doesn't inflame them?

And we sure shouldn't apologize for having a country so free that even idiots can make lousy movies. I'm outraged that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called that pipsqueak so-called preacher to beg for his cooperation. Do I have to even ask what the reaction would be if Bush had sent our top officer to a private citizen to silence him? This is so far out of the general's lane that I am outraged at that.

But there is a policy question. The policy question comes up when you ask why these nutballs feel that they don't have to worry about the consequences of attacking our embassies. Mind you, the host countries have stepped up to fight back against the rioters. Good for them. That's their job. I see nothing that indicates these governments are enabling the attacks even if they have been slow to adequately defend our embassies.

But have we really squandered the respect for our power and determination to defend ourselves that we at least pounded into the Islamist world by decimating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq, capturing and executing Saddam, and killing Osama bin Laden and dumping his body at sea?

And maybe nothing we could have done would have stopped the jihadi nutballs from the last week's actions. They are jihadi nutballs, after all. But if so, the Obama administration could at least stop acting like they don't think we are at war with Islamist nutballs and face the fact that the President is not "responsibly ending" our wars. We have a lot more jihadi killing to do in order to defeat the Islamists who remain way too powerful and influential in the Moslem world.

In the end, the Moslem world needs to reform to delegitmize nutballs. But the reformers--whether they are willing to publicly admit it or not--need us to do the job of killing. And as long as we are targets for whatever grievance they can imagine, we need to do our job.

Then, maybe the Moslem world will approach reality and gain the ability to write a really strongly worded letter to the editor in response to some idiot's ranting film dreck.

UPDATE: More on the problem here and here.

UPDATE: Mad Minerva notes a cartoon (not safe for work or those who are eating ...) that has not provoked an orgy of mayhem and murder by those other symbols on the COEXIST bumper sticker.

UPDATE: We're submitting to the Islamist demands, it seems. That's what it looks like, anyway.

I suppose we should all just be grateful our president didn't just send a drone to drop a Hellfire on his house, eh? Maybe the Obama administration will learn to love Guantanamo Bay detention facilities as a place to drop this guy.

Our president needs to tell the nutballs that he is truly sorry that they are nutballs, and stop blaming our side of this dispute.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn reminds us that our president should understand we are at war and reminds our press corps that it isn't blasphemy to think our president just really sucks at his job.