This pretty much sums up American global literacy.
Libya does not equal Rwanda.
Libya does not equal Bosnia.
Libya equals Kosovo.
I remember when Kosovo broke out. A lot of very serious people said that Clinton was A) rushing into something by not getting congressional approval and B) making a mistake by ruling out ground troops from the beginning.
Turns out that Kosovo worked about as well as could be expected. Kosovo is no longer under the Serbian boot and the Serbs are no longer under Milosevic's boot.
I have no idea if this current action will lead to Ghadaffi/Qadaffy/Kudahphee's ouster. Right now, I would put money on his leaving power by the end of April. His military commanders will run out of the desire to get pounded from the air. They will be bribed by NATO to switch sides. The Khatoffee clan will slink away to exile in Sierra Leone or somewhere with a few hundred million in the bank.
Which would be great.
Except it makes it more likely that we invade Iran during the opening months of the Bachmann Adminstration.
Also, looks like the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining momentum in Egypt. This will produce much hyperventilation in the American press. Because the Muslim Brotherhood is all Muslimy. And we can't have Muslims running a Muslim country now can we.
Friedman or someone like him made the point that letting Islamists run things puts the pressure on them to produce good governance. I think that's accurate.
Egypt won't be a compliant ally like it was under Mubarak. It will require more judicial handling than in the past. Dumbassed sloganeering and bullying words won't work on a democratic Middle East. The dictators who used to run the place could shrug that stuff off. They were savvy enough to distinguish between John Bolton and Josh Bolton.
But a democratic Middle East will be more complicated than a dictatorial Middle East.
It will still be worth it.
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