Rebels triumph in Libya

The challenge for US foreign policy that lay ahead is the need to develop a new set of strategic villains now that Gaddafi, Bin Laden and Hussein have been eliminated.

I didn't agree with the intervention when it happened, and I don't agree with it now; however, Obama will certainly get a boost from his support of the rebel effort to take over Libya and can rightfully declare his intervention a success.There still remains the application of GTH's First Law of Middle Eastern politics and that is as follows: "Whenever you remove some Middle Eastern tyrant, the successor government state is much worse."

What does that even mean? Bloody reprisals? Do we know where Gaddafi is? Is the oil flowing? Has anyone's life gotten any better? Triumph is a strange word for me at this point, I suppose.

Numbah makes a good point. The situation here is **extremely fluid** and I wouldn't say that the rebels have triumphed yet. Reality is, the Rebel/Transitional Council is held together only by force from the West. We set up their governing bodies, including their central bank, which is key to establishing a balance of payments system for oil transactions and other raw materials. Over a billion dollars have been pumped into this group, to ensure that they can effectively mount an insurgency against Gaddafi, who has fallen out of favor with the West in recent years. Even with all these advantages, they were barely able to pull it off, even with massive air superiority (thanks to the United States) and arms. That certainly doesn't bode well for their ability to govern the country going forward. But that's not our concern in this really. The important thing to the West is that an uncooperative government was removed and replaced with one who is effectively in their pocket. This... Read more

I really disagreed w/this from the start. I don't think we had any business assisting rebels that we know nothing about. The fact that piles of puke like John McCain and Hillary Clinton are all about taking Gadhafi out is the ultimate in hypocrosy especially since Clinton was doing photo-opps w/Gadhafi's son like a year ago. I honestly don't get it. We need to mind our own business. The guy has been in there for 42 years, and only now is he the ultimate anti-christ. Even though Gadhafi is a douche, I can think of several world leaders who are a million times worse such as Mugabe in Zimbabwe. I don't think either side is great, but at least w/Gadhafi there was a mild sense of stability. Well, after this, let's fuck w/Syria.

Daniel 11:43 that's all I have to say about that. Oh and they are both wrong, Ghadaffi his rebels and the opposition who is trying to take him out. Both are cut from the same cloth.