From the desk

Lives lost and U.S. embassies bombarded by extreme Islamic groups have plagued recent American history and, if at all possible, made the eleventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks that much more gruesome.

Cassidy

The death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three embassy employees has only recently led to the arrest of roughly 50 people, Libya’s President Mohamed Magariaf told CBS News. Over 800 miles away, the U.S. embassy in Egypt was also infiltrated. In place of a proud American flag stood a black Islamic banner.

Rumors from news services such as the Los Angeles Times have attributed these outrageous attacks as being a product of an independent film mocking the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to the Wall Street Journal, Libya’s new national congress has cast the blame upon al-Qaeda-linked militants who were already planning attacks in the country.

As the blame is passed from person to person and the underlining cause of the attacks is investigated, Americans are rightly outraged at the death of their own and the threat, yet again, to their security.

So the question becomes, who is to blame for this lost feeling of safety? Is it the troublesome filmmaker “Sam Bacile,” who has yet to be given a face or true identity? Or is it the extremist group that slaughtered the American ambassador through their own actions?

While I place the blame on the extremist Islamic group for launching the grenades and setting the fire that caused Stevens to die of asphyxiation, one cannot help but think that Bacile may have caused this seemingly unbalanced reaction.

On one account, Bacile is protected under the First Amendment.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”

But freedom of speech is limited. You cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theater, you cannot be obscene in public, you cannot provoke illegal activity, and you cannot divulge government secrets that could be a threat to national security.

Regardless of the stickiness of the First Amendment, what Bacile did was stupid. This stupidity does not excuse the barbarianism of those extremists in Libya and Egypt, but it does make you question whether the government, and what we are doing as everyday American citizens, is smart.

Gone are the days when our actions are viewed only by those in close proximity to us. Our words, actions and images are now placed across the globe for all to see, including those who brew hatred in their hearts.

Instead of forging our own hatred for these individuals and lashing back in violence, we should think intelligently.

When you come face-to-face with a giant, do you fight it with sheer force, or do you find a smarter, less violent way to bring it down?

As a young man, David brought Goliath down with only a strategically-flung stone, not with the violent force of a thousand men.

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