Muammar, Mo Problems
By Amit Singh | Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 | International, PolicyLast week during my vacation in Costa Rica, I was quite saddened to see our Nobel Peace Prize winning president launching air strikes against Libya. Of course Gaddafi is a horrible dictator and the world would be a better place without him, but the same was true for Saddam Hussein. That being said, I doubt most Americans want a repeat of the Iraq War. While the Obama Administration is trying to market this as more of a “Kosovo” than an “Iraq”, we truly do not know who we are supporting. There are already rumblings that Al Qaeda is participating in the rebel forces, but who really knows? We don’t know if we’ll have a new dictator that is worse than the old one, or whether the new Libyan government will be more like Iran or Turkey.
In addition, all of this is happening with the backdrop of another government shutdown just around the corner. Unfortunately, while the Pentagon is estimating the cost of Operation Odyssey Dawn for the first week at $600M, Congress can’t agree on cutting more than a few billion when they need to cut over a trillion. Since we are freezing over $30B of Gaddafi’s assets, why not take that money to pay for the no-fly zone and help us pass a budget for FY2010?!?!
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13 Responses to "Muammar, Mo Problems"
Actually Kosovo didn’t turn out so well. It’s a breeding ground for EU terrorists and is a smuggling center.
These are troubling times in the middle east, which in my opinion will affect the security of the United States to a degree which matches our economic troubles.
Whether in Egypt, Libya, Iran or Bahrain, I find myself “projecting” what I assumed to be universal concepts of freedom and democracy, self-determination and capitalism, onto populations which may very well abhor those values.
This doesn’t seem like a clash of democratic values with authoritarian rule, as much as it seems like the opening volley (or perhaps a culminating moment) of a war between secular government and a spreading theocracy movement which would be at odds with Western civilization and values.
I don’t believe Al Qaeda has to be directly participating in the Libyan opposition for us to see that the events in Libya and Egypt and possibly Yemen and Saudi Arabia are wins for Al Qaeda. The downfall of secular Arab regimes is a top goal of Al Qaeda — I wonder what they think of U.S. missiles aiding in that goal?
BB “I assumed to be universal concepts of freedom and democracy, self-determination and capitalism, onto populations which may very well abhor those values. ”
There are plenty of people in the US who abhor those values.
I actually see what happened in Egypt as a loss for Al Qaeda. The whole excuse of puppet US govts oppressing their people in the Middle East is withering away. The protesters are not calling for a Taliban or Iran style govt but more of a Western democracy with term limits, etc. Personally I think the whole Arab Awakening is making Al Qaeda less relevant.
I agree with Amit. I also see the rise of the muslim brotherhood as opportunists we may be inadvertently aiding. I have worked with several engineers of arab decent who would LOVE to see western style freedom and governing for their homelands with modernity for their native culture to move past the age of dictators kings and wealth hoarding unelected rulers..
The Egyptian people want Sharia Law which the Muslim Brotherhood will be more than likely to assist. Just as Al Qaeda is waiting in the wings in Libya to provide Sharia there.
we truly do not know who we are supporting.
Actually, we truly do know:
http://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2011/03/arm-them-today-fight-them-tomorrow.html
Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
We need BD’s neocon contingent who, early on, claimed support for “pro democracy forces in Libya” to show up and justify this. Or not.
Hello?
Its all about the oil. All of the religious, political, humanitarian and diplomatic claptrap is a means to that end.
Nice picture of Quadaffy, Amit. The shades are cool and the haircut shows why he keeps his head wrapped in a diaper.
Too often we have tolerated, and even supported, murderous dictators because they were “the enemy we knew.” Once they were gone, the government that replaced them was generally better. Regime change is and should be out objective in Libya, despite what Obama said on TV last night. He has earlier stated that “Quadaffi must go” and his Secretary of State clearly stated at the London Conference that regime change was something that the US is seeking. It may or may not have been in our vital national interest to bomb Libya, but now that we have thrown down the gauntlet we must finish him or he will be sending his terrorist squads after US interests wherever and whenever possible. We made a huge mistake in 1999 in ignoring Osama bin Ladin’s “declaration of war.” Lets not wait for a Libyan 9-11.
I know I over-generalized when I cited “populations” abhorring Western values we take for granted — there are capitalists, moderates, communists, anarchists and religious zealots in every population, just to name a few. The question is, as these enormous power vacuums appear, what will rise in the gap? Moderate, pluralistic, free-market civil societies embracing basic women’s and minority rights and a tolerance for the existence of Israel? God I hope so. But the fundamentalist forces in the region that want Sharia law will not tolerate a “pluralistic” society…so they will either prevail, or kill and die trying.
@John Jackson, when I visited Egypt last year, the locals I spoke didn’t tell me they wanted more Sharia law, heck, they probably could have had that under Hosni Mubarak anyway. Most of them wanted a better economy and more job opportunities.
Virginia’s own Randy Forbes REALLY takes it to Sec. Def. Gates on Libya. Forbes addresses the legality or lack there of in our action in Libya and stands tall for the Rule of Law. Frankly, Randy Forbes kicks butt here. Virginia can be proud of this kind of representation and upholding of the Constitution.
awesome video. just wrote Forbes a thank you letter
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