"The west must be honest about its role in Libya's violent chaos"

The violent attack on the US consulate in Benghazi leading to the death of ambassador Chris Stevens and three aides, and subsequent assaults on western diplomatic offices in Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere are evidence of a wilting of the Arab spring, for which the west bears considerable responsibility. To blame are the west's impatience, its belief that democracy can be imposed in a hurry from the outside, and its insistence that resistance to democracy must be the consequence of a few aberrant actors and isolated terrorists.