WHY TELL A LIE ?

I'm very confused by what seems to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the public on a terrible incident. The killing of our Libyan Ambassador is tragic as was the other three people who were killed including two former Navy Seals.

We were told originally that this was a horrible tragedy as the result of a bad reaction to a stupid movie trailer uploaded to youtube. Last weekend, the Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice was paraded around the Sunday talk shows to tell all who would listen this story.

As I've already mention a few days ago, this is a lie. Why?

I have now seen film footage allegedly taken by the people who did this evil which not only shows that there were NO protests at the consulate, there were just armed men looking proud of their destruction. In addition, I've now seen footage of what's reported to be the American Ambassador himself being dragged around after perhaps being tortured. This should outrage every single American and for several different reasons.

The act itself is so repulsive that to watch any of it is a bit hard for me. I find it hard to believe that those who did this video taped it not realizing that we here in the States have seen it and our Special Ops teams now have some data to work with. I can only hope that our teams are successful in their missions.

Clearly a terrorist act, this was described by our government as a 'random act' by some who had reacted to the video. Why? And what's worse, it seems that our media has given a pass to the government as this is an election year and the media, having made their choice, has decided not to do anything to embarrass the President during this time. I am outraged that politics have gotten in the way of addressing this serious breach of diplomatic protocol and basic human rights.

Can you imagine if an ambassador from a middle eastern country was treated like this here in the U.S. ? Of course you can't because that's beyond imagination. But if something similar occurred there would be no end to the coverage and one would hope that those who did it were brought to justice. In fairness, I have seen reports out of Libya that show protest against this violent act and in support of Mr. Stevens and his work there. That does give me a little hope. But while this takes place, protests against the United States are happening in nearly 20 African, Middle Eastern and countries in Asia.

Perhaps now is not the time to argue about the White House policies that lead up to this. I'm not smart enough to know. However, the up coming elections are about choice and we'll be chosing who's policies we want to lead us into the next four years. One could argue that the Presidents opponent, Mr. Romney has not offered much in the way of specific policy regarding this and other issues surrounding the war on terror and the Western - Islamic relations.

We do know a few things though. The current administration came in with a game plan, to apologize for what it thought was a bad set of policies from the Bush administration. They assumed that if they appeased the radicals they would in turn like us. That was a very bad mistake. While we are not at war with Islam, we are in fact at war with Radical Islam, like it or not. This was true well before Mr. Bush took office and I'm afraid will be true for many years to come. When it comes to war, I'm a believer in the old "Let the other guy die for his country" concept. I do know that paying for commercials to air in Pakistan, explaining that our government doesn't support the offending video might NOT be the  best way to change minds and is certainly not a good use of taxpayer dollars in my opinion.

If anything, now is the time to explain who we are and how we got here. We are and always have been a collection of people who were in one way or another, restricted by our former governments. Freedom of religion and speech are cornerstones of our way of life. Killing and rioting are not part of these freedoms. And frankly, if you really want to mess with us, you'll meet the best equipped, best trained warriors on the planet. Now is a time to remind ourselves that peace through strength is the ONLY thing that has worked. Perhaps we need to remind those who doubt our resolve. Some of those who need reminding work in our White House.

Back to my original point. Our government has lied to us about the death of our Ambassador and while I believe it to be based on politics, I don't know that. Someone smarter than I am will have to ask the questions and get the real answers. Either way, I am very angry as I expect many Americans are. We want answers, we deserves answers. I expect we'll get those answers some time after the election. I'd like to think it won't take as long to catch those who did this to Mr. Stevens and the three other Americans who were brutally murdered.

- Bird