Mainly ultraconservative Islamist protesters climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Egypt's capital Tuesday and brought down the American flag, replacing it with a black flag with an Islamic inscription to protest a video attacking Islam's prophet, Muhammad.
Toss in a speech in Benghazi while we're at it:
A Libyan security official says one American consulate employee has been shot dead and another wounded in the hand during an attack at the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Bengazi.
While we're at it, perhaps somebody in Homeland Security could latch on to the notion that they don't have to rely on the Zombie-American threat (the Undead of Peace in State Department bowing language) to inspire us to prepare for the worst.
Egypt and Libya need to make the nutballs who launched these attacks pay for their crimes. Otherwise, we will need to make those governments pay. At the least, we shouldn't pay to support governments that can't protect our embassies from their own people.
If anyone should be fixated on the "why do they hate us?" question, it is the Moslem world. Many are decent people. Probably the vast majority. But they tolerate way too many nutballs.
UPDATE: Canada isn't inexplicably paranoid. They're just ahead of the curve:
Canada's surprise decision to sever relations with Iran may well have been triggered by Ottawa's fear of retaliation for stepping up its denunciations of Tehran and a parallel move to list Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Has it gotten to the point where our embassies in Moslem countries need to have a reinforced infantry battalion dug in to defend them with liberal rules of engagement?
And Claymore mines. Lots of Claymore mines.
UPDATE: Our ambassador, a State Department official, and two Marines were killed.
The Egyptians at least have beefed up security around our embassy in Cairo.
But the idea that a film justifies this murder spree is the outrage.
UPDATE: I do not think of these attacks as acts of war by Egypt or Libya. Much depends on the reaction of the governments. I don't believe the governments are complicit in the attacks. If my assumption is proven false, that's another story. And if the governments fail to provide better security after these incidents, that's another story, too.
Remember, the Libyan government barely controls the building they try to run their country out of:
Libya's interim president has visited a mountain town controlled by fighters loyal to slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi in a reconciliation bid aimed at reintegrating it with the rest of the country, officials said.
Bani Walid was taken over by Khadaffi loyalists in January. And this is hardly the only example of local defiance of national control.
UPDATE: The Libyan government has apologized for the attack. Said their interim president:
Mohammed el-Megarif described the attack as "cowardly" and offered his condolences on the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans. Speaking to reporters, he vowed to bring the culprits to justice and maintain his country's close relations with the United States. He said the three Americans were security guards.
This, at least, is an appropriate apology.
Thus far, I don't see a parallel between these incidents and Tehran. These are not government-supported mobs.
If our jihadi enemies are emboldened, who knows? But right now this is not a Jimmy Carter moment, in my opinion.
Still, maybe this is a wake up call to the Obama administration, and perhaps our president will start treating those daily intelligence briefs with the urgency they deserve.
This is why I trusted George W. Bush and don't trust President Obama on national security issues. I never doubted that President Bush treated every day after 9/11 as a challenge in the war to keep us safe. I have never believed that President Obama really thinks of himself as a war president--unless you count his campaign against the Tea Party and Romney.
