On September 11, Barack Obama announced the end of the longest war in US history. The assassination of the American ambassador to Libya a few hours after the speech shows how wrong the American president was

Two destroyers with Tomahawks on board, now sent by Barack Obama to the coast of Libya, do not at all mean that a large-scale retaliation operation is being prepared for the murder of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and at least three other diplomats on September 11. This is just one of the signals that the current American president's opponent in the upcoming election, Republican Mitt Romney, called a “ambiguous and contradictory” reaction to the murder.

He also criticized the "almost apologetic tone" of the administration's statements (in fact, he confused it, it was a statement from the US Embassy in Egypt) regarding a hard-hitting film released in the United States about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, which provoked unrest in several Islamic countries. Diplomats, trying to smooth out the situation, condemned “individual irresponsible individuals for seeking to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims, as well as representatives of other religions.”

They meant, in particular, the producer and director of the film, and by his main profession a realtor from California, Sam Basil (according to him, he is a citizen of both the United States and Israel, although the authorities of the Jewish state deny this), and also notorious for his hatred of Islam pastor from Florida Terry Jones.

America demonstrates strength, but does not want to use it to its full potential. Moreover, he almost apologizes to believers. According to Romney, it is necessary to “defend American values,” including such as freedom of creative expression. The Republican leader, however, did not describe in detail what he would do in such a case. However, there is no doubt that if he wins the election, US relations will likely worsen not only with Russia (judging by the Republicans’ election rhetoric), but also with the huge (according to various estimates, from 1.3 billion to 1.6 billion people) Islamic peace too.

Does America need this? In my opinion, Obama's caution seems justified.

After all, the Near and Middle East is a minefield for politicians, where one contradiction leads to another and where conflicts are far from over. The “Arab Spring,” which is commonly referred to as the process of change in Arab countries, did not immediately lead to stability and improvement of life. Another thing is that socio-economic changes were ripe and inevitable. And one more important point - they were led by Islamists, which is no coincidence, since a significant part of the population supports them.

Thus, publicly burning the Koran or insulting the Muslim prophet today is the same as having wild dances in a minefield. And if amateur director Sam Bassil, living in California, can still hide from public attention, which he did, then Americans working in the Middle East will have a hard time, despite the fact that their country actively supported the Arab Spring. Residents of the Middle East constantly blame their troubles on the United States. And here the invariably sensitive religious topic is raised, and, as you know, in our time, Muslims react much more sharply to insults than Christians. So it is not surprising that, following Libya and Egypt, the American embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa is under siege today, and this is certainly not the last time.

And, of course, this is not the first case, it’s just that the “Arab Spring” gives these outbursts a particularly alarming color, given the weakness of the local authorities, and their little desire to resist such expressions of indignation.

Let us remember the protests that took place at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006, caused by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. Or how at the end of March 2011, Pastor Terry Jones burned a Koran in Florida, and the Afghans in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, who learned about this a few days later in April, went to storm the UN office there - as a result, seven employees died (Russian Pavel Ershov miraculously escaped ). No one even counted the victims among the guards and among the angry crowd.

The same list includes a film about Islam and Muslim women by the Dutchman Theo van Gogh and his murder in November 2004 by a Dutch citizen of Muslim origin. And then four years later, another scandalous film for 15 minutes in the same Holland called “Fitna” (“Troubles”). At the beginning of 2008, the scandal with the cartoons repeated itself when several European newspapers reprinted them.

The question of how secular and liberal a society should be is hotly debated. Taking into account the fact that there are activists on both sides who are ready to defend their beliefs, it is safe to say that these types of conflicts will continue. You just have to take into account that it is very easy to incite a tramp, half-starved and illiterate crowd in the East into a rage. And the Internet today makes it possible to convey any published information to the most remote village.

It's a pity that 56-year-old director Sam Bassil can no longer talk about this with the diplomat-orientalist Christopher Stevens, who died at the age of 52 at the peak of his career.

The investigation, however, may yet show that the attack on the consulate in Benghazi was not spontaneous. The date is too suspicious - September 11, the eleventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States. In addition, the fire at the consulate occurred as a result of firing at the building from a grenade launcher. The grenades also hit the diplomats' cars standing nearby. And although it is clear that many people now have weapons in their hands in Libya, it is possible that an organization similar in its goals and methods to Al-Qaeda was working here.

It also remains to be seen whether the Ansar al-Sharia (Supporters of Sharia) group suspected of being behind the attack actually exists. It is unclear whether the terrorists knew that just the day before the American ambassador arrived at the Benghazi consulate from Tripoli to open a cultural center. Was he the main target or did he come under fire by accident? Finally, who translated excerpts from the film into Arabic just before September 11 and posted them on the Internet?

All this requires the work of special services, but in the meantime the United States is strengthening the security of its embassies in Libya with anti-terrorist units of Marine Corps special forces. This measure may have to be extended to other countries. But we must not forget that among the Libyans there were also those who carried the Americans out of the burning building. It is still unknown who brought the still living ambassador to the hospital, where they tried to resuscitate him, again, local doctors.

It is difficult, however, to agree with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said yesterday that the attack was carried out by “a bunch of barbarians.” Just look at the scale of religious protests and their fierceness - and then at least half of the male adult population of the Middle East falls into the category of “barbarians”.

And President Barack Obama looks too optimistic, who on the morning of September 11, that is, shortly before the tragedy in Benghazi, said in his speech at the Pentagon that “with the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2014, the longest war in our history will end.” " Events in Libya have once again shown that this asymmetrical war is in full swing and there is no end in sight, there is no front line and it is difficult to predict where the next blow will be struck. And anyone in this confrontation could turn out to be an accidental victim.

The longest war in US history with no end in sight