Cause of the "Arab Fall"

LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Peggy Noonan on “The Age of Would-Be Princips” 9-15-2012

                         Peggy Noonan gives credence to the Obama Administration’s claim that an Internet video, which few have seen or care about, is the cause of the “Arab Fall” (these current Middle East protests and murders) beginning on the eleventh anniversary of 9-11. I have two problems with this: one pertaining to the defense of the First Amendment right of free speech, and the other pertaining to the veracity of the claim.

                        First, America should never apologize for our core values. Our response (especially on the level of the government) to those who might seriously object to an instance of free speech ought to be, “In America we believe in free speech. It is our most important freedom.” Period. No excuses. No “yeah, buts.” Simply “we love our free speech.”

                        Second, blaming the “Arab Fall” on an Internet video is ludicrous.

                        It is plain that the Obama Administration is taken by surprise by the “Arab Fall” and embarrassed by it. In order to divert attention from the embarrassment, they point to this video as the cause. It is a bald face lie equivalent to the scene in the Wizard of Oz in which Oz shrieks, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

                        Here is the cause: Those who are rioting in the Middle East are extremely distressed, speaking psychologically. Their distress is rooted, not in America or YouTube. Their distress is existential. When people live in ignorance, poverty, and tyranny, they are quite understandably distressed. One living a Middle Ages’ life in the 21^st Century (and aware of it via the Internet and other media) is distressed. The leaders need, in order to avoid trouble for themselves, to supply their distressed people with an outlet for their distress, anything diverting attention from the true cause (the Arab governments). In this case, the leaders found an obscure video, translated it into Arabic, and told their people about it in order to stir them up in order to discharge their distress in a more or less harmless way vis-a-vie the leaders. There are thousands of similar events occurring daily in America that might be used as a spark.

                        Hilary Clinton is doing the same thing. Americans are understandably distressed by the murder of our ambassador to Libya, and she needs to divert our attention from the true cause, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” The man behind the curtain in this case is the Obama Administration. The “Arab Fall” is the result of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy.

                         By the way, the murder of the American Ambassador, as distinct from the regional riots, was simply a terrorist act on the anniversary of 9-11 completely unrelated to any Internet event.

                        Peggy Noonan has not helped our understanding of these events by listening to and echoing the current incarnation of the Wizard of Oz, Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration.