I have worked under the Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations. Yes, violence is the way of the world but it shouldn’t be ignored. Nor should the violence of a few be held against the many.
I don’t think policy has much to do with most of these protests. With the possible exception of Benghazi, it is just Muslim fanatics lashing out over a perceived affront to their religion. Back in 2005 the fanatics acted out in a similar fashion and that was just over a freaking cartoon. And it wasn't the US. People who are attributing this to some sort of policy failure are over thinking this.
Google did not comply with the request for censoring. YouTube did block the actual video.
We have the policy of "freedom of speech" . In that, that is our policy, then yes, it did affect the protests. Since almost any printed or video material can be found to offensive to someone, we don't restrict the publishing of "offensive" materials. The protesters seem to feel that our policy of allowing individuals to produce "offensive" materials that are offensive to Islam is wrong. However, if we extended "protection" to Islam, then we would have to extend the same protections for all religions. Some do not understand this and assume we would extend protections to their religion because of course, their religion is the right one, otherwise it wouldn't be their religion.
It has not helped that, at least in some areas, the Imams and others have been telling their followers that the movie was actually produced by the US and Israel, indicating that the governments sponsored it instead of the government just not censoring it.
I do not have a problem with the peaceful protesters either. I do have a problem with the security policies for our embassies and consulates in some of these area, especially unstable areas with a long history of violent protest against the US and in countries, like Egypt, where the government is not fully established nor does it have a adequate security force of it's own. In these cases, the US should provide our Embassies, Consulates, and other facilities with adequate security forces, with ROE that allows them to actually do their job of protecting the facility. That includes meeting violence with violence, something that we are better at. At locations where the local government is willing and able to counter the mobs, then by all means, let them. However, we should still have security forces in place, even in those locations, to do the job ourselves if necessary. A show of weakness or lack of resolve only encourages more to become involved with the violence. As far as disparity between participants, well, if they are dumb enough to bring a knife to a gunfight, they pretty much get what the deserve.