It seems the administration is hell bent on sticking with the "this isn't about America, it's about a film," argument when it comes to increasing violence from radical Islamists around the world. Despite images of rioters burning in effigy the American flag and photos and dolls representing President Obama in dozens of countries around the world, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said over the weekend that America isn't "impotent" in the Middle East and that the popularity of the United States hasn't been degraded.
After showing Rice a map of protests in 33 countries around the world in recent days, I asked Rice, “President Obama pledged to repair America’s relationships with the Muslim world. Why does the U.S. seem so impotent? And why is the U.S. even less popular today in some of these Muslim and Arab countries than it was four years ago?”Apparently, the burning of Americans flags just isn't a strong enough indicator for this administration to understand what's really going on here.
“We’re not impotent, we’re not even less popular, to challenge that assessment,” Rice said in response. “What happened this week in Cairo, in Benghazi and many other parts of the region was a result, a direct result, of a heinous and offensive video that was widely disseminated, that the U.S. government had nothing to do with, which we have made clear is reprehensible and disgusting.”
