Christopher Stevens Feeds the Crocodile

Front Page Magazine ^ | September 14, 2012 | Daniel Greenfield

[dennisw]

the truth!

[x]

He was the kind of person who would take the job. I guess that implied a certain hopefulness about what was going on. Somebody who thought it was all an unsolvable mess wouldn't take the position.

Possibly that hopefulness could become naivete and a false sense of security.

We don't know what kind of resources were available for security upgrades, whether he requested more security and was turned down, or whether it just wasn't a concern for him, whether he knew the risks but couldn't get what he needed to be safe or whether he was foolish and overconfident.

But anybody who took the job, hopeful or not, naive or not, might find himself going to the Benghazi consolate as it was, without much security, if that was what the job demanded.

You may be right, but I'll wait for more information. It's too easy to make him out to be foolish caricature do-gooder -- and it's too soon as well.

[Excellence]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/libya-wikileaks/8294818/DIE-HARD-IN-DERNA.html

From the original article.

[Excellence]

If you read the WIKI leak you will find out the whole thing is Bruce Willis’ fault. What the hell, it’s anybody’s fault but Zero’s.

[Yardstick]

Well sure, I’m extrapolating some here. You have a Peace Corps volunteer and a guy who spent his life doing outreach to Muslims, working for an administration whose understanding of the world is pretty muddled. He’s in a dangerous place on a dangerous day in an unfortified building with minimal security. It just seems oddly cavalier to me. No doubt we’ll get more background on all of this soon, and I’ll be surprised if a certain amount of naivite on Stevens’ part doesn’t turn out to be a factor.

[nuconvert]

I read it yesterday. My interpretation of some of it is different from Greenfield’s.

[Lorianne]

written BEFORE 9/11/01

very precient ... thanks for posting

[livius]

Huh? Nobody said the Japanese or the Koreans were tribal. They are very ancestor linked, like the pre-Christian Romans, and of course also very class bound.

Tribalism was one of the first things conquered in Europe by Christianity. It took a long time - the further north they went, the more tribal the countries, with Germany being very, very tribal and hostile to Christianity until nearly the 9th century.

However, whatever its problems, Europe ceased to be tribal in many areas with the spread of Christianity and in many others tribalism was already on the decline because of the advance of Roman concepts of citizenship and nation.

It varied in the ME. Tribalism was also something that Judaism ended up fighting against as its concept of tribe expanded beyond that of blood and into those who accepted the Covenant (as Judaism finally began to admit converts, although this was certainly not without opposition). This, of course, was infinitely expanded by Christianity, which was the death of blood-based tribalism.

By the time of the Mohammed, the remaining tribal groups were mostly pagan. Mohammed came from one of these pagan tribes, and his syncretist religion combined tribalism (the special status of being one of his descendants, through one line or another) and beliefs in Arab superiority with the realization that a religious cult provided the best way of subduing other tribes or even states in the undefended, post-Roman world.

[diamond6]

Has an autopsy been performed on Mr. Stevens? I heard he died of carbon monoxide poisoning. I hope thats true because it’s heck of lot less painful than the alternative.

[Walmartian]

Bump and share.

[tell me]

Maybe the story won’t die by Monday, but my son might. He’s in AFG. We are at war. Please adjust your thinking.

[nuconvert]

I thank your son for his service.

Whether this article is posted on Fri or Mon has no bearing.

[kenavi]

Yes, I know Qaddafi had given up his WMD and the presumed Lockerbie assassin, in return for a truce with the West. The most responsible of his kids had even gotten his MBA here and was developing a free trade and touristic zone with Western capital.

But when he engaged in a scorched earth policy against a big swath of his own people, it would have been difficult for the U.S. and our Mediterranean allies to do nothing in the face of the massacres and the flood of refugees that would ensue.

I brought up Syria because as in Libya, there is a brutal tyrant but one who keeps the Islamists down.

In the Moslem world particularly, there are no good solutions. Every choice involves a trade-off. No one can foresee all the consequences. And our power to change things there is very limited.

We didn't create the Arab Spring. The question was how to try to channel it.

I see Christopher Stevens as one who championed our country's interests in the civilian sphere. We should not politicize his life or death.

[sweetiepiezer]

The arrogance.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y

[FreedomPoster]

There were plenty here and elsewhere who predicted the outcome we are seeing, with Islamists taking power.

Why do we have to pick a side? Why did we intervene in Libya? Without a Congressional vote, by the way. What compelling national interest was involved?

[FreedomPoster]

You’re in the right direction, but not quite there.

Stevens was like the “naturalist” in Alaska and his girlfriend who got eaten by the grizzlies.

Wildlife author killed, eaten by bears he loved

Many had warned Treadwell that his encounters with Katmai browns were too close
http://www.adn.com/2003/10/09/43465/wildlife-author-killed-eaten-by.html#storylink=cpy

[PGalt]

Post & thread BTTT!

[elcid1970]

“Genocide?”

Nice try, “x”. Muzzies want genocide or slavery for every last “infidel”, it’s in their Koran.

And try to come up with a more original username.

;^)

[SLB]

Good article. Pulls lots together.

[THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH]

Thanks CW. Posters like you are what make this forum so worthwhile.