Leonard: "We, the people of the United States, had a bad week"

I continue to hear that last week was bad for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. People say he committed multiple gaffes that may have cost him the election. President Barack Obama, meanwhile, has managed to avoid the spotlight despite a multitude of foreign policy failures.

Last Tuesday, the 11^th anniversary of 9/11, our embassy in Libya posted a message on Twitter stating that they condemned a video that a growing mob appeared to be protesting. Romney blasted the administration for condemning an American citizen’s free speech.

In a statement issued Sept. 12, Romney said, “I also believe the administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt, instead of condemning their actions. It’s never too early for the United States government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values.”

The Obama administration claims that the attack was an outpouring of anger over the YouTube video Innocence of Muslims and their condemnation of the attack was cloaked in apology. "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."

A statement like that would be like a judge sentencing a rapist to prison by saying, “While I agree that she shouldn’t have worn a skirt that short in such a scary part of town, I am bound by the law to send you to prison.” Shameful.

They claim that this is an isolated incident that sprung to life spontaneously and had nothing to do with the 11^th anniversary of 9/11; however, this is not the first attack on the United States or other western nations since the United States helped overthrow Gaddafi last year.

In April, a bomb was thrown at a U.N. convoy. In May, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a Red Cross building in Benghazi. In June, there were two attacks: one where a bomb was thrown at the front gate of the very embassy attacked on 9/11 and a second attack where the British ambassador’s vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. All of these attacks clearly show growing unrest in the region and contempt for our western ideals. The video that the Obama administration blames for the attack was not posted to YouTube until July.

In an attempt to cave to the will of the mob, the White House asked YouTube to review the video to see if it violated its terms of use. YouTube complied but determined that the video did not violate its rules; therefore, the video can still be viewed as of the writing of this article.

Undeterred, the FBI has since detained the filmmaker and taken him in for questioning. This is disgusting. Our right to free speech is in jeopardy because this administration will not admit that their Middle East foreign policy has been a failure. Instead they blame the filmmaker. This administration was warned by the Libyan government three days in advance of the attack, but did nothing. No additional security. No evacuation of the embassy. Just blame the filmmaker.

Meanwhile, the one country in that region that has not attacked our embassy, Israel, just doesn’t fit into Obama’s schedule right now. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu asked last week to meet with President Obama but was told there was no time. There is time for Letterman, time for fundraisers and time for speeches, but there is no time for our strongest ally in an area of the world that is rife with violence.

The White House has bragged that President Obama is so smart he doesn’t need to attend intelligence briefings. He just takes a written report every morning and reads it himself. Given the utter failure of his administration to act on such vital intelligence that could have spared the lives of our ambassador and his security, I would suggest that whoever is sworn in next January should probably attend the briefings and pay attention. What a novel idea.

So, who had a bad week? Not Mitt Romney. Not President Obama. We, the people of the United States, had a bad week. We lost four citizens to senseless violence. We saw our President apologize to terrorists and snub Israel. We witnessed a private citizen lose his first amendment freedom so the President could save face.

Not a good week for us at all.