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It’s Not About the Video
New York Times ^ | 09/16/2012 | ROSS DOUTHAT

Posted on 09/16/2012 7:38:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

THE greatest mistake to be made right now, with our embassies under assault and crowds chanting anti-American slogans across North Africa and the Middle East, is to believe that what’s happening is a completely genuine popular backlash against a blasphemous anti-Islamic video made right here in the U.S.A.

There is a cringing way to make this mistake, embodied by the apologetic press release that issued from the American embassy in Cairo on Tuesday as the protests outside gathered steam, by the Obama White House’s decision to lean on YouTube to take the offending video down, and by the various voices (including, heaven help us, a tenured Ivy League professor) suggesting that the video’s promoters be arrested for abusing their First Amendment liberties.

But there’s also a condescending way to make the same error, which is to stand up boldly for free speech while treating the mob violence as an expression of foaming-at-the-mouth unreason, with no more connection to practical politics than a buffalo stampede or a summer storm.

There is certainly unreason at work in the streets of Cairo and Benghazi, but something much more calculated is happening as well. The mobs don’t exist because of an offensive movie, and an American ambassador isn’t dead because what appears to be a group of Coptic Christians in California decided to use their meager talents to disparage the Prophet Muhammad.

What we are witnessing, instead, is mostly an exercise in old-fashioned power politics, with a stone-dumb video as a pretext for violence that would have been unleashed on some other excuse.

This has happened many times before, and Westerners should be used to it by now. Anyone in need of a refresher course should consult Salman Rushdie’s memoir, due out this week and excerpted in the latest New Yorker,

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: egypt; islam; libya; video
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1 posted on 09/16/2012 7:38:46 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Tell that to the stooge WH press secretary and UN ambassador who insist it’s ALL about the video (which no one has seen)...


2 posted on 09/16/2012 7:41:28 AM PDT by tips up (Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.)
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To: SeekAndFind
foaming-at-the-mouth unreason

Words that are tough to swallow, but ... esentially ... on target.

3 posted on 09/16/2012 7:44:28 AM PDT by OldNavyVet
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To: SeekAndFind

This was the Islamist version of the LA Riots. The video was just the excuse to do what they wanted to anyway.


4 posted on 09/16/2012 7:46:21 AM PDT by A CA Guy ( God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: OldNavyVet

The Arab Islamic anger is so easily exhibited in burning the USA flag. They know that this is very upsetting to people in the United States. So, they aren’t REALLY trying to be sensitive and kind, and would expect the same kind of treatment. What goes around, comes around. They get their own medicine served in the end. So, life goes on.


5 posted on 09/16/2012 7:46:35 AM PDT by rovenstinez
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To: tips up

It hurts my head that the adminisration thinks I’m so gut-wrenchingly stupid as to believe a bunch of illiterate rag heads put this kind of uprising together based on a ottrailer of a flick not even in their language.


6 posted on 09/16/2012 7:48:42 AM PDT by bossmechanic (If all else fails, hit it with a hammer)
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To: SeekAndFind
From the article from "Independent".

"Senior officials are increasingly convinced, however, that the ferocious nature of the Benghazi attack, in which rocket-propelled grenades were used, indicated it was not the result of spontaneous anger due to the video, called Innocence of Muslims. Patrick Kennedy, Under-Secretary at the State Department, said he was convinced the assault was planned due to its extensive nature and the proliferation of weapons."

"There is growing belief that the attack was in revenge for the killing in a drone strike in Pakistan of Mohammed Hassan Qaed, an al-Qa'ida operative who was, as his nom-de-guerre Abu Yahya al-Libi suggests, from Libya, and timed for the anniversary of the 11 September attacks."

7 posted on 09/16/2012 7:49:46 AM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.......)
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To: A CA Guy

“This was the Islamist version of the LA Riots. The video was just the excuse to do what they wanted to anyway.”

That is what I think as well. They were ready to riot, they just needed a excuse to do so. However, IF it had not been the video, it would have been something else.

Bottom line is that we are not liked there and a fools to think otherwise. Why are foreign policy continues to coddle these loons is beyong understanding to me.


8 posted on 09/16/2012 7:50:54 AM PDT by Sola Veritas (Trying to speak truth - not always with the best grammar or spelling)
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To: SeekAndFind

Wow, from the NY times


9 posted on 09/16/2012 7:59:37 AM PDT by rocketmag
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To: SeekAndFind
You know, maybe all the football spiking 5 days beforehand had something to do with it:

President Obama's Acceptance Speech, Sept. 6, 2012, Charlotte, NC: "You know, in a world of new threats and new challenges,... I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and we have. (Cheers, applause.) We've blunted the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan and in 2014, our longest war will be over. (Cheers, applause.) A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al- Qaida is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead. (Cheers, applause.)

...

But for all the progress that we've made, challenges remain. Terrorist plots must be disrupted. Europe's crisis must be contained...The Iranian government must face a world that stays united against its nuclear ambitions. The historic change sweeping across the Arab world must be defined not by the iron fist of a dictator or the hate of extremists, but by the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people who are reaching for the same rights that we celebrate here today. (Cheers, applause.)"

------------------------------------------------------

Vice-President Biden's Acceptance Speech, Sept. 6, 2012, Charlotte, NC:" In 2008, Barack Obama made a promise to the American people. He said, "If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights, we will take him out. That has to be our biggest national security priority." Barack understood that the search for bin Laden was about a lot more than taking a monstrous leader off the battlefield. It was about righting an unspeakable wrong, healing a nearly unbearable wound in America's heart. He also knew the message we had to send to terrorists around the world—if you attack innocent Americans, we will follow you to the ends of the earth...

... If you understood that America's heart had to be healed, you would have done exactly what the President did. And you too would have moved heaven and earth--to hunt down bin Laden, and bring him to justice.
...
And because of all the actions he took, because of the calls he made--and because of the grit and determination of American workers--and the unparalled bravery of our special forces--we can now proudly say— Osama Bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive."


10 posted on 09/16/2012 8:03:47 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (2008 + IN, NC, FL, VA, OH, NE1, IA = 272EV)
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To: SeekAndFind

Did we yank The Dark Knight Rises from movie theatres, or pull The Dark Knight off the retail shelves after the Aurora shootings?


11 posted on 09/16/2012 8:11:34 AM PDT by Chipper (You can't kill an Obamazombie by destroying the brain...they didn't have one to begin with.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The libs and the MSM have once again succeeded in delivering the lie to an uneducated, naive public. In the face of all the evidence to the contrary they have managed the scam. Bill Maher posted a more negative portrayal of Islam and then gave Obama 1,000,000.00 without stirring outrage from the faithful. The source of their outrage is not the Mohamed film, although it didn’t help, but rather Obama, “burned in effigy”, and his policy wonks in the administration, who are now in full propaganda mode, trying to save their ass. There is nothing more pathetic than watching Carney spin this story.


12 posted on 09/16/2012 8:12:14 AM PDT by greyfox (If I were a Democrat I'd be pushing for the fairness doctrine too.)
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To: greyfox

What IS more pathetic is that Ob is anywhere near getting a second term.

If he loses, which he might not, they had better put a check on ANYthing he does.

They should prepare now by getting a clue. They could read Homer and Shakespeare. Inside operators goes back to ancient times.

Just duh!


13 posted on 09/16/2012 8:18:32 AM PDT by stanne
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To: SeekAndFind
The big news here imo, is here that this is coming from the NYT <p> Maybe they realize the absurdity of the situation and are attempting to shore shore up what's left of their credibility
14 posted on 09/16/2012 8:22:44 AM PDT by the anti-liberal
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To: A CA Guy; xzins

There was no riot. There was no protest. This was a coordinated attack by terrorists. The anger about the video nonsense is just a ruse created by the Adminstration to cover their own asses. The “protest” began when the terrorists lobbed grenades into the compound. Up until that moment you could hear a pin drop outside the compound.

Don’t buy into the video anger crap. This was an act of war.


15 posted on 09/16/2012 8:30:46 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (There can be no Victory without a fight and no battle without wounds.)
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To: SeekAndFind
it's called misdirection...
16 posted on 09/16/2012 8:31:37 AM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: rocketmag

Douthat is their token conservative, token Christian. His views are generally 180 degrees away from the party line pushed everywhere else in that rancid paper.


17 posted on 09/16/2012 8:31:59 AM PDT by madprof98
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To: SeekAndFind

“The universalism of Islam, in its all-embracing creed, is imposed on the believers as a continuous process of warfare, psychological and political, if not strictly military. . . . The Jihad, accordingly, may be stated as a doctrine of a permanent state of war, not continuous fighting.”2
Majid Khadduri

from The Quranic Concept of War; Parameters; US Army War College; LTC Joseph C. Myers...

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/parameters/Articles/06winter/win-ess.htm

Our own Sociopath of State, POSOTUS and their propagandists using PSYOPS against us to shut down speech.

RESIGN Rodham
RESIGN Hussein

Treason

FU

scum

Another Fast & Furious tactic of totalitarians.

Life, liberty and the pursuit and destruction of totalitarians, foreign and domestic.

C’mon November


18 posted on 09/16/2012 9:05:31 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: StAnDeliver
Thank you for posting.

Just think, an American VP, just days before the 11th anniversary of 9/11 displays a blatant lack of perception and discretion and taunts domestic political opponents with a silly chant which, a few days later, gets a direct response from the streets of Cairo.

And his Administration ignores any correlation between the message sent and the message received abroad. Instead, they begin circulating and publicizing an up-to-then obscure film, clearly an effort to distance their own failures leading up to that fateful anniversary which now becomes America's 9/11 #2 attack.

19 posted on 09/16/2012 9:06:07 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: stanne

Don’t worry. Zero is NOT IN THE LEAD. The lame-stream polls that show him ahead are using 2008 party identification percentages — which means Dims are being over-sampled. The republicans are more fired up than we were in 2010. In fact, there have been a few articles that take these lame-stream polls and apply 2010 party identifications and guess what happens — Zero ain’t leading anymore. Rasmussen is about the only pollster not applying 2008 percentages and his polls tell a different story to the lame-stream polls.

OBAMA IS NOT LEADING IN THE POLLS. The lame-stream is doing everything they can to make us think Zero is in the lead. The lame-stream is exposed every time the internals are looked at, yet they keep on producing crap poll after crap poll. REPEAT A LIE OFTEN ENOUGH, AND PEOPLE START TO BELIEVE IT. Already I am seeing Dems comment “ALL the polls can’t be wrong. You republicans just don’t want to accept reality.” Well, if there are 2000 polls that say Zero is ahead and they all use 2008 percentages, then they are all wrong!

Take heart, Freepers, and get the message out there about these crap polls. Keep the Wisconsin Recall always in your mind. At 5pm on election day, all the media outlets announced that the exit polls said it was TOO CLOSE TO CALL. These exit polls over-sampled Dims THE SAME WAY the lame-stream polls that put Zero ahead are doing. Remember the Wisconsin result? Walker won 53-47.


20 posted on 09/16/2012 9:11:51 AM PDT by ShovelThemOut
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