McFeatters: J. Christopher Stevens' death in Libya must be avenged

Stevens and three other U.S. embassy workers were killed by a mob while trying to assure the safety of the U.S. consular staff in Benghazi. The mob had been enraged by a film made by a California resident, Sam Bacile, whom the Associated Press says identifies himself as an Israeli. The film depicts Muhammad as a philanderer who tolerated child sexual abuse, with an "an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad, whose obedient followers are presented as a cadre of goons," the AP says.

A trailer on the Internet set off riots in Libya and Egypt, where a mob attacked our embassy. Assuredly, the fallout from that ugly and intentional religious insult -- Bacile believes Islam is a "cancer" -- is not over.

American tradition and the Constitution obligate us to defend free speech, and Bacile is entitled to that protection, but they also allow the rest of us to hold him in the deepest contempt and to hold him deeply responsible for the deaths of our diplomats.

Tellingly, Romney got no support from Capitol Hill. According to The Washington Post, no Republican leader criticized President Barack Obama on Wednesday, instead calling for stronger security at U.S. diplomatic facilities, the swift capture of the perpetrators and a renewed commitment to pro-democracy efforts in the Arab world.

Libya assured the United Nations of its commitment to bring the killers to justice. And in a Rose Garden statement, Obama made that same statement, twice promising that "justice will be done." We trust that he'll see it is.