We are too late, to be able to aid any hope of a Libyan 'democracy' through any kind of unilateral, or multilateral action.What does the US want?
It wants oil to keep flowing to the West. Not to China or any of the West's competition.
It wants the people of North Africa to live peacefully, [don't bother us in Europe!] and not plot to blow up airliners, or train terrorists, so the oil can continue to flow to Western shores. It wants to continue living the petroleum dream, like it was before.
Well guess what America and Britain. it's not going back to the way it was before. It is going to get tougher before it ever gets easier, so get used to that. As resources become scarce, should we make enemies in the world, or friends?
Should we not, for once, reverse foreign policy on a number of key issues that make us one of the most hated nations on earth?
The wealthy that are in on the stocks of dividend paying arms and petroleum companies want these wars. They're so lucrative. With cruise missiles at nearly a quarter of a million dollars apiece, not to mention drone fired Hellfire missiles at $135K each, it's no wonder that we're using so many of them. The people in power pave their way to power, and PAY their way to power, but making sure plenty of these things get used. Drone attacks on the tribal areas of Pakistan have killed approximately 1 militant for every 10 deaths, yet the attacks continue. John McCain wants to use Tomahawk missiles at every opportunity. Why not? They're manufactured in Arizona. That 'paves' the way for his re-election.
Should we not for once, consider the human bill of rights that we expect for every American, and try, in our foreign policy, to support that for every citizen of the world?
Why do we continue to allow Israel to keep Palestine as it's private slave-state, using it for cheap labor and free land for the taking whenever it is convenient?
Don't we have some hard issues to grind here, before we can ever hope to find our way through the confusion of a Libya in crisis?
Al Queda is on the ground, building tribal support amidst the confusion of Gaddafi's collapse, in ways that US diplomacy simply cannot understand, much less stand in the way of. We're in the uncomfortable position of abetting rebel forces and, indirectly, aiding Al Queda our most sworn enemy!
It is time our leadership understood that nationalism is dead. Gone, finished, over with. The 'state' is a dream, and simply does not exist anymore. Nobody cares about Libya the nation. It doesn't exist. It's a group of tribes that functioned, reluctantly, at a strongman's gunpoint.
Similarly the US, as a 'nation-state' is dear only to those who believe that it carries out the wishes of it's founding fathers. Alas but that too is a dream. The US exports one set of lies, and imports another, so as to not to have to wake up the dreamers asleep on it's own shores.
I do not blame our government for any of the situations we find ourselves in, economically, politically, or morally.
I blame the moral lassitude and selfishness of the American people, who have given their 'nation-state' and corporations powers that no sane human being would ever give to another without pause.
Now that the Libyan strongman is gone, or on the way out, we get to see what the substrata of North African society really looks like. Can you imagine the suited fools from the US State Dept. meeting Bedouin fundamentalists in tents, to carry out meaningful foreign policy, aimed at securing American economic interests? Are we serious when we say we are considering intervention?
What our 'state' finds most frightening, are organizations that operate outside of 'state' status, like Al Queda. Ripe for recruiting are the disarrayed 'tribes' of North Africa. Without the 'state' of Gaddafi's Libya, to play them against one another, how will the West even communicate with the region, ruled by factions, family ties, invisible organizations where a flag means nothing at all?
The whole farce will end with some US diplomats face down in the sand as in a story by Paul Bowles.
Liars have the most difficulty communicating, whereas honest men always understand one another even without language.
It is time for the leadership of the US to engage in a foreign policy driven by the same moral courage demonstrated recently by the people of Egypt, demonstrated recently by Julian Assonge, and yes, demonstrated two hundred years ago by men like Jefferson, and Adams, and Washington.
Without a moral foundation to foreign policy, we're simply bunglers, would-be deal makers on a paper stage of paper flags, and paper boundaries, that don't reflect a single reality, and with people that don't make deals anymore with nation-states, since for the most part, they cannot be trusted.
If the US begins a period of foreign policy dictated by what is right, and what is just, instead of by what is economically or politically convenient, we won't err.
