France and Britain also support the idea, with France going so far today as to officially recognize the Libyan rebels as the official government. Meanwhile, in the United States, we're dithering about supporting the rebels, arguing that a no-fly zone is costly and not entirely effective.
I'm curious then, what the United States expects the cost of Arab democracy to be, and how much we are willing to pay for our own national security.
It seems that the official US policy is that Arabs are only fit for democracy when we force it on them - excuse me - bless them with it at gunpoint. When we find them worthy of democracy we are willing to spend eight years, a trillion dollars and 5000 American lives to make it a reality. You're welcome Iraq.
But when our leaders have decided that Arabs aren't ready then the cost of no-fly zone becomes astronomical. Why? Well because the Arabs in Libya decided on their own that they wanted democracy, we didn't choose for them...or at least that's the only reason I can fathom.
But how does this affect the United States? Aside from not assisting the people who are trying to topple a man who is guilty of terrorism, what is at stake for us?
In order to answer that question, we need to compare Iraq to Libya and Egypt and even Saudi Arabia. You see we were taken to war in Iraq under the pretense that there was some connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda. In fact there was, that connection being the letter "q," a sneaky letter which crops up so infrequently that its mere presence must mean something dastardly and un-American. What we know is that al-Qaeda did not exist in Iraq when we arrived. Say what you will about Saddam Hussein - and there are a lot of bad things to say - he wasn't working with al-Qaeda. Of course after we destabilized the country, a group called al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia appeared. In our attempt to drive al-Qaeda out of Iraq we...created al-Qaeda in Iraq. Doh!
So the guns didn't work like they were supposed to, or maybe they did because a lot of people died, and Iraqis are certainly better off today than they were under Saddam Hussein, but at what cost to us? Meanwhile, in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, America is funding hereditary monarchies (or was in Egypt) who kept telling us that they were vital to the war on terror. Really? Because according to the CIA, 15 of 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. I guess when the US props up feudal governments who strap electric circuits to people's testicles it creates some resentment. Weird. And so Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki find adherents - wait young, poor Arab man, Hosni Mubarak had you stripped naked and whipped? This is America's fault you know! Like it or not, this recruitment tactic works.
But when we look at what happened in Egypt and is now happening in Libya and elsewhere, there is one group who absence speaks volumes - al-Qaeda. Their rhetoric seems outdated. It's not about America anymore, it's not about Israel, it's about basic human rights and opportunity. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians didn't show up in Tahrir Square to vent their outrage against America; Libyan rebels aren't up in arms to fight us. Al-Qaeda is absent from Libya and Egypt because the battles in those places are not about America. There is nothing anti-American and there is little Islamic about these uprisings. This is what real Arab democracy looks like, homegrown and authentic, disgusted with a despot...it almost sounds American.
Which brings me back to a no-fly zone in Libya. If the United States is willing to spend eight years, a trillion dollars and 5000 lives to create space for al-Qaeda in Iraq, shouldn't we be willing to spend whatever small amount it takes to fly a couple planes over Libya? Are we really scared of the Libyan airforce? Couldn't we probably eliminate the Libyan airforce on the ground at this instant if we wanted to? I don't get it.
America needs to take positive steps to support the nascent movements in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. Our guns and bombs failed to win Arab hearts, perhaps it's time we let them come to democracy on their own, however in that effort, they may need our support and they should receive it. A democratic Middle East will do far more for American security than a handful of would-be kings. Maybe America needs to accept the fact that Arab people are now deciding on their own that they want democracy. Maybe by supporting the decisions of Arab peoples instead of making those decisions for them, we would make friends not enemies.
Maybe we'll find that for the price of a no-fly zone in Libya, we can do more for the stability of the Middle East and the security of America than we could do with eight years worth of war in Iraq.
No comments:
Post a Comment