Let Them Die

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was on the news Thursday explaining that no military aid was sent to American diplomats under attack in Libya, despite repeated calls for help, because "we didn't have enough information." We had live video feed from a drone overhead. We were on the telephone with people on the ground. One of our people had a laser trained on the mortar that killed him. What more information did we need? An FBI investigation?

This is not what commanders do. They do not leave endangered troops to fend for themselves when they have it in their power to help them. On 911 New York City firemen streamed up the stairwell of the World Trade Center, ultimately to their deaths. That was a proud hour of sacrifice, duty, and courage. This smacks of cowardice.

But cowardice doesn't explain it. For a president who routinely orders drone attacks on terrorists from Yemen to Pakistan what's the risk in dropping a precision bomb on a mortar position in Libya while a US mission is under attack? Something else is going on here. This is a national scandal of the first order.

The scandal extends to the traditional news media. Why aren't they covering this? If you don't watch Fox News you probably don't know it happened. AP reported the story, suggesting that an air strike would have required violating Libyan airspace. Libyan airspace? Oh please! Most outlets didn't even carry it. What are they trying to hide? Some pundits have offered the absurd explanation that it is Mitt Romney's fault for not challenging Barack Obama on the fiasco during the last presidential debate.  Mitt Romney does not control news coverage for National Public Radio.

The story is a month and a half old and gets worse every day. The Obama administration line is that they are releasing new information as it comes to light. To borrow a word from the Vice President, malarkey! The State Department, the CIA, and presumably the White House knew exactly what happened in Benghazi on the night it happened. There were no demonstrations. There was nothing spontaneous about this. This was a planned  military assault by people with heavy weapons trained in their use. Why not just say that? Why not just say that security was inadequate? It was a mistake but mistakes happen. The only thing changing is the spin.

Why did it take weeks for FBI investigators to visit the site? Too dangerous? Now you tell us! It wasn't too dangerous for a CNN reporter to wander through the consulate and pick up the ambassador's diary. Why haven't they interviewed any suspects? The New York Times did.

I'm at a loss to explain any of this but a few things are clear. Having engineered the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi (ok I misspelled it but nobody knows how to spell it) we have left North Africa less stable and the world less safe. The scandal isn't going away. Terrorists are revitalized. They have new safe havens not just in Libya but in northern Mali and quite possibly Syria. We don't appear to have a coherent strategy for dealing with it.

The scene of a helicopter evacuation from the Saigon embassy symbolized the end of what had been our longest war. But at least it was the end of a war. The scene of a burning compound in Benghazi may well come to symbolize the beginning of a new chapter in an even longer war, one that may continue for another generation. The decision not to go to the aid of the men in Benghazi and the subsequent fumbling response will have far reaching consequences. Four men are dead. There will be more.

Innocence of Muslims

The trailer has been denounced by everybody from the president to the main stream media. References are invariably preceded with words like despicable, disgusting, amateurish, or inexcusable. It is all of those things but I would be more impressed with the critics if they weren't such hypocrites. They don't seem remotely concerned with this kind of crudity when directed at Christians or Jews (Israeli Jews anyway.)

The trailer presents Muslims as bigoted thugs. Unfortunately it reinforces a stereotype that has been prevalent in the West at least since the Second Siege of Vienna. Even more unfortunately Muslim mobs across North Africa and the Middle East have reacted as, well, bigoted thugs. Why the president or any Muslim would want to publicize this video is beyond me.

In the months and years after 911 I tried hard to understand what the Arabs were so angry about, and more importantly, what on earth it had to do with us. I did a lot of reading, even a biography of Yasser Arafat. The word "humiliation" came up a lot. Their's is supposed to be the superior culture. For centuries following the western Renaissance they tried to ignore us. They really didn't think they had anything to learn from us. The people who gave us the compass, algebra, and the bank check resisted even the introduction of the printing press. There is still some of that. A fourteen year old once told me everything worth knowing is in the Koran and the Hadith, the acts and saying of Muhammad and his companions. Nothing else matters.

But in the twentieth century we became impossible to ignore. For the last fifty years our culture has been everywhere. There is no escaping our music, our television, even western dress. We are far richer and more powerful than they. That is obvious across the Arab world and it is humiliating. Maybe most humiliating of all is that our society is more just. The brutal dictatorships that dominate the region are far cry from the mutual support Allah demands of Muslims. The so called Arab Spring is unlikely to change that.

But something else is beginning to change. Arabs and other Muslims have at long last begun a Renaissance of their own. It is no where more evident than in education. Even Saudis are building what they intend to be a world class university. In order to attract  the best academics they are making it coeducational. That is important because I believe educated women will drag Arabs kicking and screaming into the modern age.

Not everybody likes the idea. The clergy has dominated Arab life for the past thousand years or so not least through controlling the education system. They won't give that up easily but, my teenage friend notwithstanding, give it up they will. My granddaughter had several Muslim girls from Middle Eastern families in her class at a Catholic high school in Houston. There will be no going back.

As the scenes of angry crowds hoisting black al-Qaeda flags over American embassies show, there is still a long way to go. A lot of good will building by American Muslims is being undone. No amount of politically correct film bashing can change that. Still, they are making impressive progress despite the news. We're still learning how do deal with this but I think most of us are past the point where we see every Muslim as a radical plotting murder and mayhem. But I'm not sure we are all past the point of ignoring obvious peril. When someone is shouting at the top of his lungs that he hates us, whether it's an Egyptian Imam or a US Army doctor, we really should take him at his word.