13-Sep-12: What to do when the rioters and their leaders howl about defending honor?

Cairo this morning [Image Source]

The premise underlying our blog is expressed in the text you see at the top of each page. It touches on the lack of factual understanding that comes from the way the news media throughout the world, no exceptions, deal with the mortal dangers posed to society and people by the jihadists and the other forces of terror wherever they are found - which is everywhere today. And it concludes by warning that "this ongoing war is killing us".

The posts we write daily are essentially a restatement of that underlying premise. The unfolding reality here in Israel, in other parts of the Middle East and in every single part of the world where the tentacles of the hatred called terrorism (and often more accurately jihadism) reach serves to illustrate something that only some of us understand and that many continue to deny. Writing this, and contemplating the realities that lead to the postings, can make a person very angry.

In his ever-sharp Sultan Knish blog, Daniel Greenfield puts the murders yesterday in Libya of the US ambassador along with three of his diplomatic service colleagues into perspective. The post is called A Bloodless Victory, and here is how it starts:

Obama's clean war in Libya, the one that was won by lying to the UN and then dropping bombs and flying away while ragged bands of fighters whittled away what was left of the decrepit Libyan military, doesn't look so clean anymore. The bloodless victory has seen its first blood shed as those same fighters coddled and protected by American jets and drones tore into the temporary consulate set up to liaise with the rebels, set it on fire and dragged the body of the ambassador who had helped their rebellion succeed through the streets while posing for snapshots with his corpse... On September 11... the brave Libyan people we came to liberate bravely stormed our consulate and set it on fire, and then the even braver Libyan security forces tipped off the brave Libyan people where the safe house where the staff was evacuated to was located and the more of the brave Libyan people showed up determined to kill some Americans. [More]

Published yesterday, another article ["Slain Ambassador Chris Stevens Slipped Into Libya on a Cargo Ship During Revolution"] provides a tragic footnote to the brutal killings. It describes how Amb. Stevens got into Libya in the early stages of the rebellion against Gadhafi by hitching a ride on a Greek cargo ship. "Stevens, whose diplomatic foothold were a couple of battered tables, was on literally on the rebels' side while the revolution was at its most vulnerable and in danger of being crushed by Gadhafi's troops who were moving on the city." Then it quotes Hannah Draper of the US embassy in Libya who says that Stevens

"loved Libya and Libyan people... liaising with the rebels and leading a skeleton crew of Americans on the ground to support humanitarian efforts and meeting up-and-coming political leaders... We could not ask for a better ambassador to represent America during this crucial period in Libyan history."

At his Senate confirmation hearing in March, Stevens said, "It will be an extraordinary honor to represent the United States during this historic period of transition in Libya." Sad to say, it will be difficult for people to fully comprehend that honor just now.

As of this morning, Thursday, we're seeing the 'revolution' continue to exact its price with anti-American riots across the Arab world. In Yemen, the rioters broke into the embassy compound, and then [according to the AP report] "brought down the U.S. flag, burned it and replaced it with a black banner bearing Islam's declaration of faith", namely "There is no God but Allah." In Cairo, riots at the site of the US embassy continued through this past night and into the morning [report]. Why? According to a spokesperson for the Movement of the Revolutionaries of the Egyptian Street:

"I am here to defend the prophet and to protest the security men who are Muslims and yet preventing me from letting my voice be heard. Nothing has changed under (President Mohamed) Morsi. The revolution will prevail..." [source]

Good and courageous people like those torn apart by a Libyan mob on Tuesday will continue to die as long as leaders inside and outside the region try - and fail - to figure out what civilized societies need to do when street mobs set out to "defend the prophet" and their honor, and to have their "voice" heard.