Bodies of four US diplomats killed in Libya returned home

The bodies of the U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Smith, security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, both former Navy SEALs killed in the attack on U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, have been flown back home.

President Barack Obama joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to express condolences in a ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland as the bodies arrived covered with American flag.

The U.S. president has vowed to do everything possible to protect Americans overseas, as he honored the diplomat and three staff members killed in the assault.

"We will bring to justice those who took them from us. We will stand fast against the violence on our diplomatic missions," Obama stressed.

"The men were four patriots who loved their country, chose to serve it and served it well. They knew the danger and they accepted it," the U.S. president said.

"They lived and embodied the American ideal," he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered her most heartfelt condolences and deepest gratitude to the four families of the deceased. She said the service given by their loved ones was at the heart of what makes America great and good.

Mrs. Clinton also said leaders in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia, countries which have all witnessed attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions this week, must do all they can to restore calm and reject the tyranny of a mob.

"Reasonable people and responsible leaders in these countries need to do everything they can to restore security and hold accountable those behind these violent acts," Clinton said.

However, some Arab media and political analysts were annoyed from the word used by Clinton, as she "mob" instead of "protesters."

Others talked about the assault of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and said that the U.S. ambassador, and others were not killed by bullets or shell, but by suffocation from smoke caused by burning consulate. At the same time, why is the U.S. administration concerned with finding and punishing the killer while dozens are killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan every day? Who will punish America for its crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Meanwhile, the Independent daily reported that, the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was poorly guarded. It was not guarded by the usual contingent of U.S. Marines. Instead, protection was provided primarily by local guards, who fled when angry protesters approached.

According to the same source, in addition to a senior diplomatic source who said that the U.S. State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi and the embassy in Cairo that American missions may be targeted, no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and lockdown, under which movement is severely restricted, the report stated.

Despite all these statements, but the U.S. government still confirms that the attack was planned.

Opinion:

Every day new secrets and logical analysis are revealed, but unfortunately it seems that the U.S. decision to go for a war against terrorism in Libya is already taken despite any news preventing that. It will not be a war in the traditional sense, but I think it will be the same way as in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan with bombing through drones, at least at the beginning.

I think that America is insisting on such operations. Unfortunately America's attitude towards the Middle East help people to hate it and maybe force them to try taking revenge whenever possible. The U.S. ambassador and the other three had families, and people who loves them, same as those who are killed under the pretext of the "war on terror," most of them leave families behind them and are also innocent and have nothing to do with terrorism.

I think that President Obama should know how to apply justice on everybody, including America.

I have concluded that America after 9/11 is not as before. Of course I remember the explosion of the Marines headquarter in Beirut, where many of them were killed. I also remember the downing of U.S helicopter in Somalia, where four pilots were killed and their corpses were even insulted. At that time, America did not make any strong move so as to take revenge or bring those who carried out this violent acts to the justice.

We, as Arabs and Muslims, do not hate Americans, but we hate the attitude of their government, regardless of the ruling party. Finally we are humans and our duty is to live on this planet in a healthy atmosphere full of love and justice, away from the threat and murder.

Source:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/2012914183640424365.html