Or is it Mohammar Hussein? Sorry, I'm bad with names. It's tough for me to keep these Evil Arab Dictators straight.
Oil prices have spiked, threatening our precious economic recovery. And peaceful demonstrators have threatened the stability of the allied-and-therefore-not-evil dictatorships in Bahrain (HQ of the US Central Command and the 5th Fleet) and Yemen, prompting our very-close-and-therefore-not-very-evil allied dictatorship, Saudi Arabia, to send in troops to "stabilize" the situation.
This can mean only one thing.
It's time once again to Save the World for Democracy.
Remember Libya, three weeks ago? Before the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear crisis apparently reset our collective memory? If not, take a moment and journey with me all the way back to February 25, 2011, when the Wall Street Journal reported a very different picture from the impending genocide against civilians scenario being portrayed by the media and President Obama:
LIBYA REBELS TIGHTEN NOOSE
BENGHAZI, Libya. Rebels menaced Col. Moammar Gadhafi's stronghold from all sides Thursday, as insurgent commanders said they have sent troops for an offensive against Tripoli and residents of the capital prepared their first mass demonstration in days on Friday.
Just 30 miles west of Col. Gadhafi's shrinking base of power, antiregime forces battled for the oil-industry town of Al-Zawiya. On Thursday evening, opposition forces gained control of Misrata, a coastal city 130 miles east of Tripoli.
Peaceful civilian demonstrators? I think not.
In Benghazi, the country's second-largest city and the hub of eastern Libya, a group of army colonels who recently defected said they are plotting the end their former commander's 42-year reign, which began to crumble last week as Libyans joined the antiauthoritarian protests roiling the Arab world.
"We have a plan to bring down Tripoli," Col. Tareq Saad Hussein, one of seven former colonels who have taken charge of rebel forces in Benghazi, said in an interview. "We will not stop until we liberate the whole country."
Until Gaddafi forces got the upper hand, those "civilians" we are suddenly so keen to "save" from "possible genocide" were "rebel forces"
racing around the country with weaponry seized from military bases,
shooting down Libyan Air Force jets, and
beheading the downed pilots. As is apparent from the WSJ article, many are from regular army units who abandoned Gaddafi and
defected to the rebel side.
Reminds me of a famous quote...
Of course the people liberals don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship corporatist oligarchy, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people liberals can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they innocent civilians are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism supporting an evil dictator, and exposing the country to greater danger standing idly by when a genocide is about to occur.
Nah! I'm kidding! I think it's just great that we have a trillion-dollar military so we can have so many splendid little wars! We're well on our way to 300! Yay team!