The Doctrine That Failed
On the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, radical Islamists breached the walls of the U.S. embassy compound in Cairo, tore the American flag to shreds, and replaced it with the black flag preferred by al Qaeda, which reads, “There is No God but God, and Muhammad is his messenger.”
The embassy had been warned of protests in advance. Much of the staff was told to stay home. The pretext for the protest was a YouTube video promoting an obscure film, The Innocence of Muslims, that mocks the prophet Muhammad. Larry Schwartz, a communications specialist in the embassy, released a statement before the protesters had assembled, intended to assuage their anger.
It read, in its entirety:
The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims—as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.
That statement was the official position of the U.S. government for more than 12 hours. In a midday briefing, a State Department spokeswoman acknowledged that the embassy walls had been breached but said nothing about the statement. At 10:10 p.m. that evening, an Obama administration official told Politico that “the statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government.”
