The Middle East....NRA, etc and arguing....

[jon71]

I'm sure a lot of people are between enemy and friend. Welcome to the real world.

[Gloria]

I'm sure a lot of people are between enemy and friend. Welcome to the real world.

So, Jon, how would you treat a neighbor who was "between an enemy and a friend"???

While you are thinking about that remember that Obama said: ”I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy.”

Then a few hours later.......

The State Department affirmed Egypt's legal status as an ally — an apparent contradiction to what President Obama said in a Wednesday interview.

Asked repeatedly if the State Department still considered Egypt a major non-NATO ally — a designation they were awarded in 1989 — State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said simply: "Yes."

"The president, in diplomatic and legal terms, was speaking correctly," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "We do not have an alliance treaty with Egypt. Ally is a legal term of art. As I said, we do not have a mutual defense treaty with Egypt, like we do, for example, with our NATO allies."

But Egypt was one of the first non-NATO allies designed by the U.S. government along with Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, and South Korea. While the status does not imply a mutual defense pact, it does confer certain benefits.

Israel, for example, is also a major non-NATO ally without a formal security agreement — and is often called an ally by U.S policymakers and leaders.

The State Department refused to say whether Obama misspoke.

[jon71]

So, Jon, how would you treat a neighbor who was "between an enemy and a friend"???

.

You'd deal with their actions on a case by case basis. Things could move in either direction and the U.S. will respond accordingly. It's foolish to be guessing now.

[Naturist Mark]

The State Department refused to say whether Obama misspoke.

Oh how cute, Gloria is trying to make us believe she doesn't understand what was said.

The president was asked whether he considered Egypt's new government to be an ally. He explained it was really too soon to say and that their actions would determine that.

Gloria is trying to pretend confusion between the meaning of the question the president was asked, and the status of the alliance between the US and the Egyptian military - an alliance that boils down to a promise that we will provide Egypt with military aid in parity with the aid that we provide to Israel's military for as long as they maintain peace with Israel. That's pretty much the whole extent of the 'alliance' with Egypt - they don't attack Israel. That doesn't mean that Egypt is a friend to the United States, or that it supports US policy in the world. Or vice versa. Whether the new Democratic Egypt is a political ally of the US, or at least a supporter of the same principal values is up to Egypt. So far, so good. They aren't attacking Israel, and they seem to be staying on track with political reform - despite the fearmongering in Gloria's Islamaphobia.

[usuallylurk]

That must mean that Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Revere, the militia/army, etc. who fought for freedom from England during the Revolutionary War were all criminals. What a novel way to look at our Founding Fathers.

Yeah but if the colonists had been unsuccessful in their military operations - they WOULD have gone down in history as criminals. The "American Colonist Rebellion of 1776". The modes of fighting employed by the colonial militia were considered to be terrorist tactics and cowardly in that time (see the movie "Johnny Tremain" - a kids' movie from 1957 but on Youtube now - interesting).

And as Dr. Franklin said, "If we do not hang together, we almost certainly will hang separately!" And they would have - but given that the British were trying to hang on to as much of their empire as they could, and the Americans allied with the French ("the enemy of my enemy is my friend") and the British didn't have the resolve to fight a long war on overseas soil .... the Americans won. But if they hadn't - at least the eastern seaboard would have become a British colony and remained so for a long time.

[Gloria]

Last night FOX News CONFIRMED that after two weeks of steady denials, the recent strikes on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, were planned terrorist attacks...nothing to do with a YouTube clip.

Apparently intelligence officials knew in less than 24 hours of the assault that it was a terrorist attack by al-Qaida.
But what we get is the White House Press Agent telling the media:

“This is a fairly volatile situation, and it is in response not to United States policy, obviously not to the administration, not to the American people. It is in response to a video, a film, that we have judged to be reprehensible and disgusting — that in no way justifies any violent reaction to it.”--Jay Carney

Then our U.N. Ambassador, Rice, goes on Meet the Press and tells the world:

”Obviously our view is that there is absolutely no excuse for violence and what has happened is condemnable. But this is a spontaneous reaction to a video and it’s not dissimilar but perhaps on a slightly larger scale than what we have seen in the past with the [Salman Rushdie's novel] ‘Satanic Verses’, with the [2006 Danish newspaper] cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.” --Susan Rice Sept 16th

And, of course, Obama is apologizing all over the Muslim world for a film that no one had ever seen and the Islamics are ROFL behind his back.

This is nothing more than a cover-up by an administration that didn’t want to have a terrorist attack against a United States’ sovereign territory on their watch, but that’s what happened.

[Yogi Bare]

You and your president are pretty poor judges of character.

He's YOUR president also, unless you have renounced your citizenship. But wait... Isn't one the the requirements to be a Tea Party member is that a person has to renounce his/her U.S. citizenship? After all, they certainly don't have the best interests of all the citizens in mind as they push their agenda. In addition, it seems that the Partiers are pretty poor judges of character, considering who they support.

[Naturist Mark]

Last night FOX News CONFIRMED that after two weeks of steady denials, the recent strikes on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, were planned terrorist attacks...nothing to do with a YouTube clip.

Apparently intelligence officials knew in less than 24 hours of the assault that it was a terrorist attack by al-Qaida.
But what we get is the White House Press Agent telling the media:

“This is a fairly volatile situation, and it is in response not to United States policy, obviously not to the administration, not to the American people. It is in response to a video, a film, that we have judged to be reprehensible and disgusting — that in no way justifies any violent reaction to it.”--Jay Carney

Then our U.N. Ambassador, Rice, goes on Meet the Press and tells the world:

”Obviously our view is that there is absolutely no excuse for violence and what has happened is condemnable. But this is a spontaneous reaction to a video and it’s not dissimilar but perhaps on a slightly larger scale than what we have seen in the past with the [Salman Rushdie's novel] ‘Satanic Verses’, with the [2006 Danish newspaper] cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.” --Susan Rice Sept 16th

And, of course, Obama is apologizing all over the Muslim world for a film that no one had ever seen and the Islamics are ROFL behind his back.

This is nothing more than a cover-up by an administration that didn’t want to have a terrorist attack against a United States’ sovereign territory on their watch, but that’s what happened.

There she goes again.

This desperate attack against the administration is straight from the floundering Romney campaign and their FOX News subsidiary. First - Obama has never 'apologized' for the US, that is a FOX News fairy tale.

Everyone at first thought the consulate attack in Benghazi was from crowds protesting the fake movie trailer on Youtube. But within 24 hrs the state department was reporting hints that it was something else entirely - I posted about that the next day, using news stories based on state department sources saying it was likely a pre-planned attack by Salaphist and/or al Qaeda connected militias retaliating for the US assassination of a Libyan al Qaeda leader. But even though that information was coming from State Dept sources, it was not stated as fact until much later - they waited until they actually had the facts, what bastards!

The FOX News reaction? Huckabee is calling for impeachment over Obama's failure to call it terrorism until he had the facts. And also for removing the Marines from embassy protection duties. Of course it was not Obama who changed the role of the Marines - it was Bush who removed them from that duty and turned it over to the State Dept security service which then subcontracted it to mercenaries (er... private contractors). Huckabee may not know it, but an ex-president CAN be impeached - that is the equivalent of an indictment, so maybe we can grant him his wish and prosecute the president responsible.

More here: Myths And Facts About The Benghazi Attack And Protests In The Middle East

[Gloria]

There she goes again.

How very Reaganesque....

This desperate attack against the administration is straight from the floundering Romney campaign and their FOX News subsidiary. First - Obama has never 'apologized' for the US, that is a FOX News fairy tale.

Everyone at first thought the consulate attack in Benghazi was from crowds protesting the fake movie trailer on Youtube. But within 24 hrs the state department was reporting hints that it was something else entirely - I posted about that the next day, using news stories based on state department sources saying it was likely a pre-planned attack by Salaphist and/or al Qaeda connected militias retaliating for the US assassination of a Libyan al Qaeda leader. But even though that information was coming from State Dept sources, it was not stated as fact until much later - they waited until they actually had the facts, what bastards!

So when can we expect Susan Rice to retract her statements made FIVE days after the State Dept knew what was going on....???

This is nothing more than a cover-up by an administration that didn’t want to have a terrorist attack against a United States’ sovereign territory on their watch.

"The U.S. ignores warnings of a parlous security situation in Benghazi. Nothing happens because nobody is really paying attention, especially in an election year, and because Libya is supposed to be a foreign-policy success. When something does happen, the administration's concerns for the safety of Americans are subordinated to considerations of Libyan "sovereignty" and the need for "permission." After the attack the administration blames a video, perhaps because it would be politically inconvenient to note that al Qaeda is far from defeated, and that we are no more popular under Mr. Obama than we were under George W. Bush. Denouncing the video also appeals to the administration's reflexive habits of blaming America first. Once that story falls apart, it's time to blame the intel munchkins and move on.

It was five in the afternoon when Mr. Obama took his "3 a.m. call". He still flubbed it." Wall street Journal.

The FOX News reaction? Huckabee is calling for impeachment over Obama's failure to call it terrorism until he had the facts. And also for removing the Marines from embassy protection duties. Of course it was not Obama who changed the role of the Marines - it was Bush who removed them from that duty and turned it over to the State Dept security service which then subcontracted it to mercenaries (er... private contractors). Huckabee may not know it, but an ex-president CAN be impeached - that is the equivalent of an indictment, so maybe we can grant him his wish and prosecute the president responsible.
More here: Myths And Facts About The Benghazi Attack And Protests In The Middle East

It is really time to stop blaming Bush for everything.....it's beneath you Mark. So many Bush policies left in place make it seem like Obama decided Bush was right all along...

However, as to diplomatic security.......from the U.S. State Department:

Each ambassador, in consultation with their Regional Security Officer (RSO), sets the policy regarding the security of the embassy or consulate. The RSO is responsible for coordinating all security measures and reports directly to the ambassador in any given nation.

The AMBASSADOR, not Bush, decides what kind of security he wants. Marines, State Department Security, local police, Mercenaries or the Three Stooges.

Since ambassadors are appointed by the President, their policies reflect his foreign policy and that is currently based on liberal principals.

The Obama world view is simply this: America is to blame, America is unjust and immoral as founded. We never deserved superpower status because we didn't do it on our own. We actually stole resources from people around the world. We are the reason that there are poor people in the world because we essentially took their stuff. We take their oil, we take their diamonds, whatever, and we make ourselves rich....well, 1% of us get rich. So we don't deserve the superpower status.

Up until 9/11/12 Obama's foreign policy was, Americans are loved again! The United States is loved and adored and respected again, because Bush is gone and Obama is president. We killed bin Laden, and that takes out Al-Qaeda, and therefore that is the end of terrorism against us because "we wiped 'em out". AND they don't dislike us anymore. because we supported the Arab Spring. Then this happens, our ambassador gets killed, our embassy in Cairo gets trashed and liberals can't believe it

[Naturist Mark]

because we supported the Arab Spring. Then this happens, our ambassador gets killed, our embassy in Cairo gets trashed and liberals can't believe it

I think it is a bit over the line to be rolling with laughter over an ambassador being killed.