(New York Post) Michael J. Totten - As forces loyal to Libya's cruel and deranged tyrant Moammar Gaddafi reconquer one rebel-held city after another, the Arab League and the Arabic press are calling for a no-fly zone over the country to even the odds. Yet the American public's appetite is low for intervening on behalf of the rebels - and it's largely the Arab world's fault. Last time Americans led a coalition to topple a mass-murdering dictatorship in the Middle East, the Arab League and the Arabic press hysterically denounced us as imperialist crusaders fighting a war for oil and Israel. Egged on by al-Jazeera, they cheerleaded the "resistance" that killed thousands of our soldiers with roadside bombs in the years that followed. Many are hardly willing to risk American treasure and lives for people who aren't necessarily our friends, who may well take shots at us after they're liberated, and who might build a new aggressive regime of their own. The U.S. is damned in the Arab Middle East if it acts and damned if it doesn't. This was true before Obama was president, and it will remain true after he is gone, no matter what he decides to do or not do.
2011-03-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive