A diplomat who risked his life for democracy There is a terrible poignancy to the killing in Benghazi of the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other diplomats. Mr Stevens, an Arabic speaker who first travelled to the region as a Peace Corps volunteer, had played a pivotal role in the liberation of Libya. As the US special representative to the Libyan Transitional National Council through most of 2011, he helped prepare it for power following the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi. In the words of Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, yesterday: "How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?" The reason is clear enough. Mr Stevens's killers were Salafi militants, jihadists whose influence has spread from Saudi Arabia to much of the Arab world in recent years. The fall of hardline rulers in the Arab Spring has allowed them to flourish, and they are as much an enemy of the Libyan government as they are of the United States. Their attack on the US mission and a parallel assault in Cairo were prompted by the broadcast of a crude American-made film denigrating the Prophet Mohammed. In a free and open society like America, freedom to express even the most obnoxious views is jealously guarded - a concept that is utterly alien to Islamic fundamentalists. And in reality, the motive is irrelevant, for the Salafis are intent on provoking the United States regardless of any specious justification. President Obama's response to the outrage was measured and dignified as he pledged to work with the Libyans to bring the killers to justice, vowing that "no acts of terror will shake the resolve of this great nation." How depressing that Mitt Romney sounded so peevish as he used the killings to score political points. Not for the first time, the Republican presidential challenger has struck a jarring note. The killings will inevitably prompt searching questions about Mr Obama's understandable determination - in the light of Iraq and Afghanistan - to play a less interventionist role in the Middle East. The President signalled the policy shift in his Cairo speech in 2009 when he pledged a "new beginning" to the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. Yet the dividends have been meagre. The simple fact is that Islamic fundamentalists are irreconcilable; to them the United States will remain the Great Satan, irrespective of what it actually does. And in Libya, it was doing good. Mr Stevens was a diplomat working at the sharp end, helping to nurture a fledgling democracy in conditions of great personal risk. He paid with his life for the cause of freedom.