Middle East Commentary - March 24, 2011

(News, Views, and Tools) What Middle Eastern or North African country will be next to fall into turmoil?  Or...maybe it will be a Southeast Asian country like Pakistan.  Who knows.

With Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Syria all in some state of revolution, who will be next is anyones guess. It seems that nearly every day there is another revolt or protest underway and in most cases, all the world can do is sit by and watch, that is, with the exception of Libya.

Whether the handling of Libya is proper or not is something that must be left to history.  In this case, the U.S., Britain, France, and to a lesser degree, the Arab League decided that it was time to put an end to Gaddafi's assault on those Libyans protesting for change.

Under a mandate by the U.N. Security Council, the decision was made to enforce a no-fly-zone to prevent the Libyan Air Force from attacking the protesters.  Now I'm certain that none of the members of this alliance would be sorry to see the end of Qaddafi's 40 year dictatorship even if they won't admit it.  Col. Qaddafi has been a thorn in the world's "side" for many years.  At a minimum Qaddafi has been accused of sponsoring the downing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1998.  Then in 2003 Libya admitted responsibility, but not guilt for the downing of this passenger aircraft.  In addition, he does not come across as someone completely in control of all of his faculties, or more plainly, he seems to be insane.  I say good riddance.

In all of these cases, the question that needs to be asked is, what will the world get in exchange for these regime changes?  In some cases, we will likely get a leadership that is worse than what existed before, but hopefully, in the end, after all of the pain, sweat, and suffering it will be what the citizens of these countries truly want.

Change is seldom painless, or easy.  Look at what is going on in the U.S. right now.  Our President campaigned on a platform of "change", and look what we have.  We have a Congress that can't seem to compromise, we have congressmen that have been in government far too long, we have politicians that don't even remotely speak for their constituents, and a President, like many Presidents before him that is pushing his own agenda with a blatant disregard for our Constitution.  To make matters worse, our very own Supreme Court seems to be making decisions, not based on our Constitution, but on their own political bent.

I'm certain that the countries currently undergoing revolutions and protests, will suffer their own problems while they mature.  Whatever forms of government they choose to pursue will provide their own unique challenges, but all we can hope is that their citizens will be able to live in peace, with freedom, and liberty for all.

My heart goes out to all of those risking their lives for the betterment of their fellow countrymen and countries.