Freedom of Speech

I know sensitivities are involved, but it seems to me that the US government, specifically the White House and State Department, is way off base here.  The assassinations and accompanying/coordinated attacks on our embassies/consulates came, it is alleged, due to an anti-Muslim/Islam film.  Of course, that's just another excuse, but that's not my point here.

This would be a great time for American leadership to show itself.  The President and Secretary of State have a golden opportunity.  I think they are blowing it.  Both from the White House and the State Department, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff, come statements denouncing and criticizing the anti-Muslim/Islam film.  (I haven't seen the film.)  They are wrong, very wrong.

The President and Secretary of State should announce they don't agree with the views in the film, that they are not American policy (again, not having seen the film, I don't know if its contents should be US policy).  But then--and this is important and key--they should denounce the assassinations, citing that Americans believe in freedom of expression, that we have rights, including free speech.  Free speech in a free country does not tolerate violence against it.  In the strongest terms, the President and Secretary of State should support freedom of speech as well as denounce the violence, regardless of whose feelings were hurt or whose sensitivities were offended.  Leadership....

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  Maybe some of us don't??????