Which is better, seeing violent riots in the streets over blasphemy, or seeing courts ban blasphemy and arrest people accused of it?
Certainly violent riots.
That would allow us to spot the sorts prone to violence over such matters, and shoot them in the head.
Or imprison them.
I agree with MicroBalrog. Plus eleven billion or whatnot.
If you feel the need to riot over anything except for foreign invasion or government suspending the Constitution, yep. You kinda deserve to be shot, and voila, no more rioting. Mind you, that's rioting. Breaking and burning stuff. Now, granted, having the military do so can have all kinds of interesting problems and possibly cause more problems. But having property owners, their associates, the police or the National Guard doing so? No one will care, except for the media.
I'm not sure why we don't issue proper riot suppression gear to our embassies and close any consulate that is not legally considered US soil. Two M134D's, a handful of sniper rifles, a couple SAWs and/or M240s, and some Javelins in case of technicals or suicide trucks. Just make the walls thick enough to soak up the extra rounds. It'll handle virtually any riot. Any country that is not down with that, tis fine. Pull out our embassy.
Don't get me wrong, serious overkill for say, Japan or Switzerland. But the point should be fairly clear.