Monday Morning quarterbacking is the birth(defect)right of all Americans, not just for their favorite team on the gridiron, but it seems for anything of minor or major importance. The whole "terror" portion of the debate last night was must see TV, but what has particularly stuck in my craw about this whole Benghazi affair is the blissful ignorance of damn near everyone of another event that happened earlier on the 11th of September.
Cairo (CNN) -- The United States said it was taking measures to protect its citizens worldwide after protesters angry about an online film considered offensive to Islam attacked U.S. diplomatic compounds in Libya and Egypt on Tuesday, killing an American. In Cairo, several men scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy and tore down its American flag, according to CNN producer Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, who was on the scene.…Several individuals claimed responsibility for organizing the demonstrations Tuesday, including Salafist leader Wesam Abdel-Wareth, who is president of Egypt's conservative Hekma television channel. Mohamed al-Zawahiri -- the brother of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri -- added, "We called for the peaceful protest joined by different Islamic factions including the Islamicc Jihad (and the) Hazem Abu Ismael movement." "We were surprised to see the big numbers show up, including the soccer Ultra fans," he said. "I just want to say, how would the Americans feel if films insulting leading Christian figures like the pope or historical figures like Abraham Lincoln were produced?"
Not to diminish the tragedy that occurred in Libya, but there were also violent protests in Cairo that were directly attributable to this “youtube video.” These events occurred the same day. No one died but protesters did scale the embassy’s wall. Given that Egypt is of incredibly more strategic importance to the Middle East, (two previous wars with Israel anyone?) the administration was correct to also address the events in Egypt especially to ensure that events there would not fester. They apparently did their job since this seems to have died down. Is it really surprising then that official statements and comments in the days and week after would refer to both events?
Is it any more surprising that the Romney camp conflates the two events, ignoring totally the events in Egypt that were demonstrably tied to the youtube video, and claiming that any and all statements by the administration were solely made to address the situation in Benghazi. The world is a much more complicated place that can’t be whittled down to a simple return on investment calculation. It would be nice if the media would look at their own archives from the week of September 11 and decide to put back into context all of these quotes that the Romney campaign takes out. Iffa Woulda Should Coulda as my old coach used to say.