Middle East On Fire

So President Obama is fast learning that this intervention thing is not so easy. Are we in charge of our own forces? Is NATO in charge of Libyan air space. Just how much are we committed to protecting civilians and how shall we do it. What is success in this mission? How do we get out of it. These are questions we all are asking. The parties, both Republican and Democrat are showing their hypicrocy. We see Newt Gingrich that mental gymnast that he is going from saying we should intervene to saying we should not have following his tried and true Southern formula " of whatever he afore I am agin it. " Just as bad however are the Democrats who are endorsing the President when and if President Bush had done the same they would have been denouncing it on high.

To me the action makes no sense. Surely terrible things are happening in Libya but the question remains, is it our business? We know that we do not seem to have such a fervor for the potential revolution in Bahrain. As Iran and Saudi Arabia position for influence in the Middle East the U S Goverment seems to be taking sides. This is the right decision of course, as long as we do not allow ourselves to think that the Saudi's are really the good guys. They are simply the " not the worst guys."

Today we hear that 24 people were gunned down in protests in Syria. Of course Syria is on the bad list, so we are surely in favor of the protesters. It seems unlikely we would intervene in Syria as well. The problem is that clearly the United States has no coherent plan. Jordan and Yemen are also having significant protests, in fact the Yemen President has already agreed to step down at year end in an attmept to keep the lid on his country.

The Middle East is a powderkeg. George Bush always proclaimed he wanted to spread Democracy. As we learned however Democratic elections do not always lead to the outcome we want. This is why tyrants who take our money and protect our interests are always tolerated by our government. Khadaffi has always been a bugaboo for the United States and perhaps taking part in taking out a dictator we believe might help our standing for these Democracy aiming protesters.

It sees to me that another ramification of this tidal wave of change is that Israel has got to get real about it's Palastine problem. Demographically this policy of repression will not succeed. Eventually sheer numbers will overwhelm them. However much of their safety has been the result of peace accords with Egypt and Jordan and at least quasi respect with Saudi Arabia and even Syria. While it seems that the protestors are more thinking of having a voice against repression than repressing thier Jewish neighbors the fact is that no one knows where this ends.

What we do know is that eventually their neighboring countries will have an opionion on the Palestine problem and the leadership of these countries will be much more unstable.

The Libya decision was a mistake and appears as such. Obama has put himself in a no win situation. If he really wants to be successful here perhaps we could use this as another example of a reason to get ourselves out of the middle east game and become energy independent. Their oil and our blood and presitge. That is a combination the United States needs to rid itself of once and for all .