Four U.S. Troops Released in Libya

The post-“Arab Spring” anarchy continues:

Four American military personnel assigned to the United States Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, were detained Friday and then released after being held for hours by the country’s Interior Ministry, American officials said.
The four were believed to have been reviewing potential evacuation routes for diplomats when they were detained, according to the initial reports received by officials in Washington. . . .
After running into a problem at a checkpoint — many of which are run by local militias — they were detained and later moved to the Ministry of the Interior . . .
The buzzing sound of drones filled Tripoli’s sky for hours as rumors spread through the capital that four Americans were missing.

So, the U.S. helps Libyans overthrow their dictator, and now our troops are getting hassled by “local militias” at a checkpoint? This is a persistent problem in the Third World: A shortage of gratitude.

Kevin D. Williamson once described Bush’s War on Terror as an ill-conceived “program to make Anglo-Saxon republicans out of obscure desert savages.” Obama’s policy is no less ill-conceived.