I am amazed by the statement put out by the U.S. embassy in Egypt after it had been attacked by an Islamist mob today. That it happened on Sept. 11 makes it worse. That it happened on the same day a U.S. official was murdered in Libya makes it much worse. I had to read the statement a couple of times to really grasp the depth of its self-abasement. The President of the United States should explain promptly whether it represents his position.
UPDATE 9/12 7:46PM: Reportedly, the embassy's statement came out before the attack happened. If so, then it's merely a flaccid statement rather than an atrocious one. I'm not clear what exactly happened thereafter, if the embassy's tweets referred back to the statement once the attack began, etc.
UPDATE 9/12 10:41 PM: More: "Inside the public relations disaster at the Cairo embassy," at Foreign Policy, which reports that an officer of the embassy did send out tweets reaffirming the statement while the attack was already under way; and that those tweets were subsequently deleted.
