Maybe it's because I'm an American. Maybe it's because I've seen, in my life, what suppression of Free Speech has done around the world, the repressive, anti-equality, anti-Freedom, anti-feminist, anti-Jewish, anti-American regimes it has created. But I cringe when I hear about groups of people trying to kill others based totally on something that the other group believes or said.
That's why my feathers are ruffled. That's why I'm incensed that Hillary Clinton is talking and other people are talking about mobs attacking US embassies and talking about the Ambassador being killed in an attack in Libya over a movie that THEY see as being uncomplimentary about Muhammad.
It is time for the talking and the rhetoric and the speechifying to stop. It is past the time of asking Muslim leaders to control their people. It is past the time of diplomacy and negotiations. It is time for us to protect our rights to create a movie that is controversial. It is time for us to protect our television producers and our movie makers. It is time for us to show our enemies that we can "talk their language", that we can fight back and that we have just as much of a right to our opinions as they do.
The only way to do this is to fight for our rights, literally. And, while I don't for one moment underestimate the sacrifice our military people make, but the reason we have a strong military is to protect our freedom, our way of life and our lives. I appreciate the brave men and women who protect our freedom and our lives, but we are not being fair to them if we send them in to do a job and many of them lose their limbs or lives and then we pull out before the job is done. It's sort of like having a virulent, life-threatening infection and only treating part of it. By doing that, you create antibiotic resistant bacteria. By only fighting part of the war, we create an enemy that thinks we are weak and that strengthens them.
We, unfortunately, have a long history of striking hard and moving out. This started with Carter and his washy-washy way of handling the Ayatollah. It continued with Bush hitting but not finishing off Saddam Hussein. And it's still going on today with our indecisive handling of Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention Al-Qaeda, post 9-11.
This embassy attack is a symptom of the problem. It's a symptom of the entitlement that men in the Muslim world feel. It's a symptom of the Muslim world's belief that they are better than everyone else. As long as we appear weak to them, they believe that G-d is on their side. And we can't allow them to believe that. We have to fight for the real Face of G-d, the G-d who gave us an equal chance to succeed, an equal chance to shine in His/Her world. If we allow them to define G-d, if we allow the worst opinion of G-d to hold sway, we do ourselves and this world a disservice. Let's stand up for our values. Let's show our strength. Let's prove to the Muslim world that freedom is something we think is worth fighting for.
