WASHINGTON -- Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) piled onto a right-wing push Wednesday to blame President Barack Obama for attacks on U.S. diplomatic posts in Libya and Egypt, even as many other leaders counseled caution and support for the democratic underpinnings of the Arab Spring.
Mobs protested in Egypt and Libya on Tuesday, apparently spurred by an anti-Islam film promoted by Quran-burning preacher Terry Jones. In Benghazi, Libya, attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at the U.S. Consulate, killing four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
West, a former U.S. Army officer, suggested it was the Obama administration's support for the Arab Spring uprisings that encouraged the attacks by "intolerant, barbaric, radical Muslims."
"Americans need to question whether the deaths of these innocent patriots could have been avoided," said the controversial lawmaker in a statement. "The Obama Administration touted the Arab Spring as an awakening of freedom, which we now see is a nightmare of Islamism." West then repeated a false claim that U.S. Embassy officials in Cairo "apologized" for the inflammatory film.
"President Obama's policy of appeasement towards the Islamic world has manifested itself into a specter of unconscionable hatred," West continued, declaring that the events in Libya and Egypt ranked with the Iranian hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were held for 444 days in Tehran, starting in late 1979.
"President Obama has clearly surpassed former President Jimmy Carter and his actions during the Iranian Embassy crisis, as the weakest and most ineffective person to ever occupy the White House," West said. He did not mention that Obama's watch has also seen the death of Osama bin Laden and scores of extra-judicial killings of terrorists in drone strikes.
Another House Republican, Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, said the U.S. should cut off funding aimed at helping Libya transition to democracy since the people there don't appreciate the help.