Foreign Affairs

I’m sitting here this morning, watching as the situation in the Middle East begins to spill over. What started out in Cairo, Egypt and has spread to Tunisia and Yemen. In addition, we have had our Embassy in Libya attacked and tragically lost the Ambassador and three others in what is being described as a planned, coordinated attack for the 11th anniversary of 9/11.

What strikes me as odd however is that as I combed through the various media outlets, there seems to be more attention directed at the republican presidential nominee on his commentary the other day.

So what exactly did he say? “It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

OK, so what exactly was the administrations response that led to that stinging rebuke from Mr. Romney?

Early Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued a statement that appeared to criticize the video that had sparked the initial incident in an attempt to defuse the protests.

“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims, as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

Apparently the White House has come out and walked back that statement, explaining that it was a low level embassy staffer who didn’t have the authority. Uh huh, yeah.  Washington, and by extension all of its many governmental branches, operates on the “mother, may I?” principal.

If you think some low level staffer would risk their career to blurt that out, I’ve got this really nice ocean front property in Kansas for sale.

Truth is, whether you want to admit it or now, even the media has their favorites and none more so than President Barack Obama. Like rabid sports fanatics they will vilify and ostracize anyone that is on the opposing team, until such time as that person joins their side and then they swoon over them.

Think Johnny Damon when he went from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees.

But the bottom line is, it’s not the truth.

One paper commented “Mitt Romney’s stinging blasts at President Barack Obama in the wake of attacks on U.S. diplomatic posts in Libya and Egypt was a vivid illustration of how much American politics has changed.”

Really?

Where were these same enlightened folks when Senator John Kerry was openly criticizing then President George Bush about the Iraq war? This didn’t go on for days, this went on for months. President Bush was mocked openly by any number of political, media and entertainment outlets. Who can forget the term “cowboy diplomacy?”

So why is it, that when you have a D next to your name, there is a different standard?

Why when they protest the United States in the Middle East is it “failed cowboy diplomacy” is a republican is in office, and yet when they do the very same thing under a democrat you can hear crickets chirp.

Unfortunately, it is because the media is like a rabid sports fanatic. Truth matters not, just the uniform you are wearing.

When it suited their agenda, they were happy to present comments like the following:

"We are dealing with an isolated country (Iraq) with a fourth-rate military power, led by a murderous tyrant that nobody likes. And yet the [U.N.] Security Council is split. Why? It is because of the inept and bungled and cowboy diplomacy of President Bush and his senior advisers. He has spent a great deal of time in insulting our allies, in denigrating the United Nations,” Rep. Joseph Hoeffel, D-Pa.

"This crowd (Bush administration) speaks harshly and as a result, you see that when it is time that we need our friends, it is hard to get them to come with us," Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Fla.

"I think it represents a failure on the part of the administration to construct the international coalition as in past efforts” Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

"We frankly have no policy now. I wouldn't call it benign neglect, it's malign neglect," Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

"Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars, but it needs to be done at the right time and in a sensible way. This is not that time or that way." Sen. John Kerry, D-Ma.

"The danger (North Korea) is great and yet the administration is saying it's not even a crisis. That's not credible," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Wow, does anyone remember North Korea anymore? I’d almost forgotten about them. Know that Daffy Duck & Elvis aficionado Kim Jong Il is gone, Lil’ Kim is spending more time with his new wife than his nuclear weapons.

So is it okay as a politician to attack the sitting President when he is not from your party? Apparently it is. But it begs the question, why do the media only vilify it when it is done by the right?

Whatever your feelings on the topic, President Obama did withdraw our forces from Iraq. So what has been the outcome? Here are some of the most recent news reports:

• Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president was sentenced to death by hanging on charges he masterminded death squads against rivals in a terror trial that has fueled sectarian tensions in the country.

• Insurgents recently unleashed an onslaught of bombings and shootings across Iraq, killing at least 92 people in one of the deadliest days this year (2012).
• 
  A Shiite militant group is threatening U.S. interests in Iraq as part of the backlash over an anti-Islam film it has described as “heinous.”

On top of that we have endured the “Arab Spring” unrest in the Middle East since December 2010.

To date, rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Civil war is being waged in Syria. Major protests have broken out in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Sudan.

Makes you kind of wonder what the press would be saying if a republican had been in the White House?

Oh, and just how did President Obama sum it all up? 

Well, he flew to Las Vegas for a fundraiser, where he told the cheering crowd “we had a tough day.”

Wow, four dead, an mission burned down, and violent unrest spreading across the region and it’s a “tough day.”

Somewhere, someone is playing a violin as the flames claim the republic.