Which can’t win today’s wars with the last centuries strategies.

As you have pointed out, we built up a lot of good will in Libya by helping overthrow the dictatorship. But without strong-man Gaddafi to keep the lid on things, there is a political vacuum which radical Islamists are desperately trying to exploit. North Africa is wide open for Al-Quaeda and their allies now that the dictators are gone and things are getting hot for them in the Horn of Africa. This attack has probably been planned for months, to take advantage of the 9/11 anniversary. People showed up with heavy weapons and used military tactics. It wasn’t just a few crazy zealots, this was a military operation. No doubt they fomented the demonstration as cover for their attack, but they were actally separate events, only tenuously connected.

The movie that sparked the whole thing is not the cause of this attack, but it was definitely the sort of flame the bad guys, either Al-Quaeda or some similar group, used to set the mob going. Still, there is a constant stream of anti-Muslim provocation coming out of the fundamentalist Christian hinterlands in the US, no doubt meant primarily for domestic consumption, and a lot of it is on the internet ready to be harvested. Its prime I-told-you-so recruiting ammo handed on a platter to the Jihadis. The preacher who publicized this video has been involved in similar activities which have led to violence, property damage and even death. Remember the Koran-burning he organized? I sometimes wonder whose side he’s really working for, and who bankrolls him. You never know where following that money trail might lead.

The good news is that the USA has a lot of friends in Libya, both among the authorities, and the common people. Even many who may be suspicious of us may not necessarily be friends of the faction that pulled this off, and have their own bone to pick with them. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we weren’t able to get some solid intel on this gang, and perhaps even pick up a few in the leadership, although I would imagine the triggermen, and most of the planners are already out of Libya, burrowing deep underground.

Still, we are getting pretty good at tracking and finding these guys. Even if they die peacefully, of old age, you know they will still spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulder.