Last year was the Arab Spring. With help from the USA and others, mobs overthrew President Mubarek in Egypt and dictator Qadhafi in Libya.

President Barack Obama said he "led from behind" by helping the revolutions without using American ground forces, saving lives and money compared to what our troops accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But some of us asked whether the new leaders were fronts for radical and militant Islam--haters of America.

Now, these Islamist have murdered a U.S. ambassador and three others. We must ask the questions that were ignored during the Arab Spring. Was the United States played, using the illusions of freedom and self-governance to replace bad regimes with worse ones, more dangerous to us than those who were overthrown?

If we don't ask these questions now, we may never learn from our mistakes.