Media Blackout: State Dept. Knew 48 Hours Before Riots

Mitt Romney said that we need American leadership internationally. He’s of course absolutely right. Unfortunately we aren’t getting that from President Obama right now. The President is to busy fundraising and campaigning on top 40 radio stations to really come out hard against the rioters tearing apart our Embassy’s and killing our ambassadors. So far we haven’t seen any concrete plan or response from Obama. He hasn’t spoken to the nation whether in prime time or during the day. What is our response going to be in Egypt and Libya? We have no idea. But we do know that the media and Obama didn’t like Romney’s response to all of this. Obama’s idea of leadership is to do nothing and attack his opponent.

More details are coming out about the riots. In the UK it’s being reported that our State Department was given credible information about these riots a full 48 hours before they happened. Keep in mind the Embassy in Libya had no Marine or other military protection and in Egypt the Marines had no bullets. This information screams two things to me. First, the notion that these Muslims were rioting over some silly anti-Islam film made in the US is nonsense. These were planned. Second, why isn’t the media in the US reporting any of this? Could it be that to report this sort of information might hurt Obama’s chances for re-election?

Let’s face it, the American press isn’t reporting that the State Department knew about these coordinated riots 48 hours before they happened for the same reason they’re attacking Mitt Romney for daring to comment. They’re in the bag for Barack Obama and will do anything to protect him and attack his opponents. What’s amazing about this is that the media doesn’t seem to get that we can all get online and read stories about this coming out of foreign news rooms. Nevertheless, their desire to hide this story is disturbing. Hopefully they’ll be pressured to start reporting this news because it is vitally important. Especially so in light of the fact that Obama routinely skips his national security intelligence meetings and missed all of them during the week prior to these riots. It sure does paint a picture of incompetence doesn’t it?

Romney has a real opportunity here. What he needs to do is lay out what his plan would be for the middle east if he were President. He should call for an immediate suspension of all foreign aid to countries with rioters threatening our Embassy’s. Make it clear that under a Romney administration unless Egypt (or name your country) can protect our Embassy they will get no money. We will not tolerate this sort of nonsense and if it continues we’ll cut off diplomatic relations. Most of these countries want no part of cutting off American money, they don’t want to cut off diplomatic relations. This plan of action is entirely reasonable and will go over well with Americans, most of whom don’t particularly like foreign aid. It will also show people that Romney isn’t a return of George W. Bush.

We need to resign ourselves to the fact that we have a very weak President who believes in appeasement and weak American power. His reaction to this week’s event make that loud and clear. His policy concerning Arab Spring have failed. Worse, we have a media that is completely in the bag for Obama to the point that they aren’t reporting news, particularly his missteps. Meanwhile they’re attacking Mitt Romney for daring to voice a viewpoint. If Mitt Romney wants a shot to win this election he needs to make a clear and forceful statement about these riots. He remains a long shot to beat Obama so making a strong statement isn’t a huge risk. If the President won’t make a strong statement, then maybe his opponent should.