The UN-sanctioned military intervention in Libya by the United States and NATO allies created conditions ripe for Tuesday's attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the life of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other members of his staff, a former CIA director said Wednesday. In an interview with Newsmax TV, retired Air Force General Michael Hayden said the decision to intervene on behalf of the rebels seeking to overthrow Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi may have been made without a "deep and true" appreciation of all the consequences, and has left the United States with a "moral responsibility" for the future of Libya.

"Here's a case where we went into Libya for reasons that seemed very powerful for some people at the time, almost all of them humanitarian, perhaps without a true or deep appreciation for what the secondary and tertiary effects of overthrowing Gadhafi would be," said Hayden."This was always the story we saw in those cell phone videos of oppressed and oppressor, but there were other stories going on too, other narratives — East vs. West in Libya, tribal disputes in Libya, eastern Libya being home of the Islamic Libyan fighting group." Policymakers in the West failed to heed the "subplots" in the Libyan drama, he said.

"All these subplots were always out there and once you shatter the old society, these subplots become far more powerful and now we are seeing the results of that: Loss of control, portable air missiles, weapons from Libya being used to grab the northern half of Mali away from the Malian government, which is a good friend of the U.S.," he said.

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Photo of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens: AP Images