Bohemian South

Jay Bookman of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes:

According to NBC News, Mitt Romney hasn’t mentioned Libya in his campaign appearances around the country since Oct. 12, which is more than two weeks ago. Now why do you think that is?

Option one: Mitt has joined the mainstream media as part of the pro-Obama conspiracy of silence to protect the president.

Option two. Romney’s military and foreign affairs advisers have told him that not even a minimally responsible case can be made that Obama should have intervened militarily at Benghazi, and that Romney would deeply embarrass himself by suggesting such a step.

Let’s be clear: There is no indication — none — that U.S military officials advised the president or anyone in the administration that a rescue operation was possible, and that the administration ignored that offer. The evidence is entirely to the contrary.

This week’s attacks on U.S. diplomats in Libya and Egypt — apparently spurred by a film that insults Islam — were unjustified, but they highlight the level of mistrust some Muslims feel toward the West, according to an Egyptian democracy advocate visiting Utah. The mayhem that led to the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens at a consulate in Libya erupted after an American film that ridicules the prophet Muhammad went viral on the Internet.

“There’s no question people are offended, but that is no justification to commit violence and kill people. This is a barbaric act. It does no justice to themselves or their religion,” Mohamed ElBaradei said Wednesday in a KUER-FM radio interview in advance of his address scheduled Thursday at the University of Utah.

The attacks illustrate a larger problem, he said, that can be addressed only by building mutual trust, reacting rationally to slights and containing extremism.

The Boston Globe, writing in an editorial about Mitt Romney’s Tuesday night statement on the events in Egypt and Libya:

Romney was wrong on the facts. The alleged expression of sympathy was issued not by President Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but by the US embassy in Cairo, in response to protests in Egypt. It came before protesters had breached the walls of the Cairo embassy, and before any reports of deaths in Libya. Romney was wrong on substance. The statement from the Cairo embassy said the United States condemns “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.” In the midst of massing protests, this statement was a wise act of diplomacy. It sought to correct the notion that the US government was somehow responsible for the YouTube video. It aimed to quell the protests and prevent bloodshed. Romney was wrong as a matter of policy. As the candidate explained at a press conference Wednesday morning, he lashed out at the Cairo statement because it amounted to “an apology for American values.” Romney has relentlessly portrayed Obama’s efforts to present American actions in terms likely to lessen tensions in the Middle East and elsewhere as “apologies,” without any real evidence. He still has none. The Cairo statement was, in fact, an affirmation of an American value — the freedom of religion.

atlampa:

Unknown assailants attacked a compound of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Libyan port of Misrata on Sunday with grenades and rockets, forcing it to suspend its work there and in the eastern city of Benghazi, the agency said. The ICRC said seven of its aid workers were inside their residence when it came under attack. No one was hurt, but damage to the building was extensive. It was the fifth time in less than three months that violence was directed against the independent aid agency in Libya, the ICRC said in a statement, which stressed its neutrality. “Given the circumstances, we are forced to announce, with considerable regret, that we will be suspending all our activities in Misrata and Benghazi and that our delegates in those cities will be temporarily relocated,” said Ishfaq Muhamed Khan, the head of the ICRC’s delegation in Libya.

Attacks on aid workers are unconscionable. Fighting forces used to honor that fact, but in recent years delivering aid has become increasingly dangerous.

(Source: atlampa)