U.S. Government Wimps Out

I almost threw up when I heard about this. It seems that the United States government has apologized to Muammar al-Gaddafi, the dictator of Libya. Actually, it seems more like they got on their knees and kissed his ass to keep the huge oil companies happy.

Last week, Gaddafi said that Switzerland "deserved to be attacked through jihad", because the Swiss had voted to outlaw the building of minarets in their country. I admit the Swiss showed some bigotry and intolerance in the vote -- but a jihad? That sounds a bit extreme and a whole lot nutty.

And State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley remarked about it saying it was "lots of words, not necessarily a lot of sense." I think that statement was right on target and actually showed a lot of restraint, but evidently Gaddafi and his henchmen were offended (boo-hoo!). In my opinion, if Gaddafi is so sensitive then maybe he shouldn't be threatening others.

The Libyan ambassador to the United States later said the dictator was talking about an economic boycott -- not "an armed attack". That sounds more than a little disingenuous to me. When has the term jihad ever referred to an economic boycott? That is certainly not the meaning most of the world (muslim or not) gives the term.

The truth is that Gaddafi (pictured) opened his mouth and made himself look like a fool (not the first time either). Now they are trying to act offended over a rather modest statement. A statement that was much less offensive than Gaddafi's. But Libya's National Oil Corporation told U.S. oil companies they faced possible "repercussions" over the insult to Gaddafi.

And the big oil companies went running to the government. They made it clear that business, and their huge windfall profits, were far more important than right or wrong and calling a dictator on his threats to one of our allies. So our wimpy government bowed to the wishes of the big oil companies and sent Crowley out to apologize to the dictator.

Crowley said, "I should have focused solely on our concern about the term jihad, which has since been clarified by the Libyan government. I understand my personal comments were perceived as a personal attack on the president. These comments do not reflect U.S. policy and were not intended to offend. I apologize if they were taken that way."

Pitiful. How can the U.S. badmouth a popularly elected president like Hugo Chavez, and then kiss the butt of a psychopathic madman like Gaddafi? Gaddafi is an insane fool, and has been for many years. And I won't be apologizing for that!