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The September 11 murder of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, a mob’s sacking of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Cairo demonstrate the war against terrorism is far from over. Disturbingly, 11 years after al Qaida’s devastating attack on New York and Washington, neither the White House nor the State Department appears to recognize what the fight is about.

As protests erupted outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo, embassy public affairs officer Larry Schwartz tweeted — and then re-tweeted — a condemnation of the controversial film which initial reports suggested motivated the rioters. “We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others,” the...