IT WAS THE MOVIE TRAILER AFTER ALL

Well here we are on September 12.  What did Al Qaeda do yesterday to celebrate the 9/11/2001 attack on the U.S.?  The only thing I heard was there was a bomb set off on the streets of Benghazi.  Where were the hoards of inflamed Muslims attacking U.S. embassies and consulates, skyscrapers and famous bridges in our home land, sporting events, or attacking some weak foreign government?  I didn't hear of anything - nothing, nothing.

So now we know.  The attack on Benghazi on September 12, 2012* was promoted by the inflammatory video "Innocence of Muslims" after all.  After all last year "... eight other diplomatic missions in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe were subject to protests and violent attacks in response to an inflammatory video..." This year there have been no inflammatory actions against Muslims so, surprise, no attacks.  Oh, I'm sure that there are those that wanted to attack the consulate in Benghazi as they had done once before and blew a hole in the wall.  But it took the video to inflame enough people in Libya to mount the big attack that the organizers hoped for.  This year they couldn't do it again, not in Libya, not anywhere.  Even last year, they couldn't get it up to attack our embassy in Tripoli** and could only mass an attack on a small outpost.  If that is the worst Al Qaeda can do, they are pretty weak.

What happened in Benghazi last year was really a minor event except that now in this country everything is on the political table and the damage in Benghazi was magnified for political purposes, but as attacks by Muslims radicals have been, Benghazi was a minor event, only unusual because an ambassador was killed.  At that more than 30 people survived the attack.  It is kind of humorous that there are still those politicians stuck in a time warp and can only talk about Benghazi even when the subject is Syria. Hey, fellas, the public has moved on.

A Quick Summary Of  Attacks On Diplomatic Missions***  Since the embassy burning in Tripoli in 1979, in 1983 our embassies in Beirut, Lebanon, (63 killed) and Kuwait City, Kuwait, (6 killed) were bombed when Reagan was president along with the Marine Barracks bombing (241 American deaths) plus attacks on U.S. Embassies in Jakarta (1986) and Rome (1987) by the "Red Army" and a failed attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv (1990).  In 1998, U.S. Embassy's in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in which hundreds died when Clinton was president.  George W. Bush had seven attacks on U,.S. facilities including the 2002 attack on the U.S. Center in Kolkata, India, (5 killed) and the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan (12 dead), 2004 the embassy bombing in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2 killed), Jeddah Consulate bombing (6 killed), 2006 embassy attack in Damascus,Syria (1 killed), 2007 attack on the embassy in Athens, Greece, (no deaths), 2008 attacks on the consulate in Ankara, Turkey, (3 deaths), and on the U.S. embassy in Yemen (16 dead).  Under President Obama, our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked (4 killed) along with 8 other facilities and our embassy in Ankara, Turkey, was bombed in 2013 (1 killed).

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Benghazi_attack

** Our embassy in Tripoli was burned in 1979 when Carter was president, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_U.S._Embassy_Burning_in_Libya

*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_on_diplomatic_missions

YOU CAN RATIONALIZE ANYTHING

I sit in amazement at all the comments I am hearing from American news people that the anti-Muhammad trailer (The Innocence of Muslims) release has nothing to do with the riots in the Muslim world.  Few in this country except for some American Muslims understand the global Muslim mind.  There are comments about everyone knows about our free speech in the trailer about millions of people who have never had free speech.  Others comment that everyone knows that the anti-Muhammad trailer is not a U.S. government statement.  No, they don't because nothing was ever published in their country that wasn't the official government.

It well may be that there was an attack planned on the Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 because of the armaments in the attackers' hands, but surely the anti-Muhammad trailer added intensity to it.  Of course, the anti-Muhammad movie trailer was slow to spread and got its big boost by the Imams who fanned the flames in the Friday Muslim prayers (September 14th).  After that, the demonstrations spread quickly throughout the Muslim world and were peaceful by and large.  I feel that peaceful demonstrations were quite in order.  After all, what would we do in this country if there was an equivalent movie trailer denigrating Christ?  In this case, I can easily picture some Americans seeking out American Muslims to attack.

Has everyone forgotten Salman Rushdie who received fatwa (death sentence) from Ayatollah Khomeini for publication of his 1988 book Satanic Verses because of irreverent depictions of Muhammad?  At the time there were book burnings of his book.  I have heard that the bounty on his head has recently even been increased. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie)

Has everyone forgot the furor over the burning of Korans in Afghanistan by our military last February in which four Americans lost their lives in addition to about 40 others?(http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afghans-protest-improper-disposal-of-koran-at-us-base/2012/02/21/gIQAjhBqQR_story.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/world/asia/video-said-to-show-marines-urinating-on-taliban-corpses.html)

It is interesting to note that American Muslims have not demonstrated against insults to Islam by the movie trailer, so far as I know.  I suspect they are living in fear of reprisals as it is.  For one tape of Islamophobia, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NutFkykjmbM

Note added September 18, 2012: A very good discussion of the effect of insults to Islam is given by Stanley Fish (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/libya-violence-and-free-speech/?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20120918).  A brief excerpt:
And since for them religion is not an internal, privatized matter safe from the world’s surfaces, but an overriding imperative that the world’s surfaces should reflect, a verbal or pictorial assault on their religion will not be received as an external and ephemeral annoyance, as a “mere” representation; it will be received as a wounding to the heart, as a blow, and as a blow that is properly met by blows in return. No “sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me” for them.

Note added September 25, 2012:  Libyans reacted to armed militia's on September 21st over their attack on the U.S. Consulate and demand their dissolution: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Libyans-protest-defiant-militias-3884916.php.  We should remember that the hot-heads are usually a small minority of a country even if they number in the thousands.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 & THE FINANCIAL COLLAPSE

I realize that there are tens of thousands of people whose lives have been changed to various degrees: loss of a father or mother or brother, etc. It is not only the pain at a missed relative or friend, it can mean selling the house, maybe not going to college, all sorts of things. And it did change our nation in that we have been at war ever since in Afghanistan and Iraq (the big two), but Yemen and other places too in different degrees. In addition to the thousands of Americans and foreigners who died in 9/11 or suffered life changing injuries, there are more thousands who have died or suffered life changing injuries in our subsequent wars in lands far away.

But in my case, and that of millions of others, 9/11 didn't change our lives at all, as nearly as I can tell. I had already been retired for 6 years. It is true that the tech and biotech bubbles burst affected our investing style to a significant extent, and we incurred significant financial loss. I had never gotten involved in corporate bonds before or preferred stocks. But I do not see how these are related to 9/11. The housing boom affected our life in that we sold our home and moved to a lower cost state with some tax advantages just before the housing crash that has been with us since. The low interest rates in effect since the burst of the housing bubble certainly have consumed a lot of time trying to find something relatively safe that has a decent yield. Can we sell our current home and move to a retirement center? I don't know.

If I had to pick something that affected my life in this century, it would be the collapse of our financial industry due to deregulation and lack of regulation of the financial industry by the Bush Administration.* All those weird derivatives and synthetic derivatives left unchecked. It ruined our economy for the rest of my life and maybe forever. Places that have heavy regulation of their financial industry have done rather well such as Texas (a surprise) and Canada. You can deregulate industries like trucking and maybe the airlines. There will be pain, but the entire economy is not at hazard, and, maybe after some years, we come out ahead. The financial industry is different. They can't be left unchecked. As much as 9/11 may have affected America, it is the collapse of the financial industry that has most affected America. For example, Federal revenues are at a 60year low as a percent of GDP.

Where was I when the economy collapsed? I don't know. Perhaps September 15, 2008 was the date. That was when Lehman Brothers declared Chapter 11.

* President Clinton helped by signing repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act.