Blame the Victim Much?

[cthulu2016]

I guess this is Centrism, Lebanese-style. A truly responsible editorial must manage to blame everyone and everything, scatter shot, and then end with a call for harmony.

I am not Joe-patriot, and I do feel a right as an American to hold my own government to task for our embassy security if I chose to (though it is supposed to be the job of the host), but I do not care much for the idea that our embassies are what the law would call an "attractive nuisance." The fact that our facility was breeched by a paramilitary platoon using high explosives does not, to me, suggest an American moral failing in the incident.

In an editorial in the online English language version of the Lebanon Daily Star, the paper is critical of the violence but adds "... after a number of similar reactions in recent years to depictions of Prophet Mohammad far less offensive, it should no longer be a surprise. More efforts must urgently be made to contain the spread of such hateful media.

"While the violent outbursts were the work of a small group of religious extremists, the authorities in the United States must also bear some responsibility for what happened, and for the ability of the attackers to breach embassy security in both countries.

"It is also vital to view the events in Libya and in Egypt within a context, one in which people's wider anger, religious fervor or boredom -- or a combination of all three -- has been manipulated by a fifth column to further its own interests.

"If we are to learn anything from these tragic events, it is that greater religious understanding is needed now more than ever."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/13/world/meast/arabic-press-review/