Pan-Arab Revolt

Tunisia, you've started one hell of a domino effect!

First you, then Egypt, then Yemen, Libya, and now, we hear, Syria is experiencing pro-democracy riots.

Now we're helping to make sure that this pan-Arab revolt for democracy doesn't reverse itself in the form of mass-genocidal repercussions by Ghaddafi, which would almost certainly ensue if were he to beat back the revolution in Libya.

It's a damn good move.

Seriously, for those bitching about Obama going ahead and committing to air strikes in Libya, can you guys truly say that any, and I mean ANY Republican president wouldn't have done EXACTLY the same, damned thing?

Of course any Republican would have done this. It's straight out of the Reagan/Bush Sr. playbook.

But there are legitimate concerns about whether this is the right time to be spending billions on another war in another Arab country. I think those concerns are well-founded, but entirely misplaced.

Instead of being concerned about spending money on a conflict in Libya, why aren't we being concerned about spending less in Iraq and Afghanistan?

If we were offsetting our military spending in Libya by scaling back in our earlier, ridiculous conflicts, we wouldn't be having a debate about spending more money, would we? With the new unrest in Syria, they won't be worrying about attacking Iraq any time soon. In fact, the Sunnis may want revolt in Syria so that they can take Western Iraq and make it part of the new Syrian democratic system. After all, they might as well, since the new Iraqi government is underrepresented by Sunnis. (Remember, the Sunnis were forced to boycott the 2005 elections because Bush fucked up the P.R.) And haven't we wasted enough time and money pretending Bin Laden isn't dead? I was in favor of Afghanistan before, but it's time to get the fuck out of there now, I say.

Besides, we seem to have a new policy of letting the Arabs fight for their own democracies. We already know that the second we're gone from Iraq, the Kurds will try to establish their own government. Why not let them?

Here's what I say: Instead of fighting over whether we should spend more on Libya, let's debate on spending less in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sure makes more sense to me.

Eric