Tonight I am in Caracas and watching the news with my old Dad. TVE of Spain translates live the Obama speech about why the US had to get into the Libya potential mess. I am trying to explain him that Republicans are unfairly attacking Obama, and that many in the US think that two wars are enough. My Dad easily and convincingly dismiss the whole thing with a handful of words: "They shouldn't. It is the same war".
Indeed, I cannot argue with him even if it is not politically correct to suggest such an opinion, redolent of "clash of civilization". But truly, is there any major difference between Al Qaeda, The Taliban, and Qaddafi? Without bringing in Shia Islam.....
Are they not all the product of complacent dictatorships from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, only too happy to force the West into accepting their nasty rule because they were a barrier of sorts to further fundamentalism while guaranteeing oil supply?
Well, it was not......
Whether we like it is irrelevant: we are confronted with the necessary fight for freedom and democracy against obscurantism. True, in Benghazi they might be ready to burn US flag as soon as they are done with the French ones, but what other options do we have? Keep Qaddafi in office?
We have been complaining in the West that secular Islam was not taking a stand against Al Qaeda and assorted creeps, and thus indirectly (unwillingly?) allowed for them to survive and even prosper. Now it is time to support their primal efforts while demanding some type of accounting from them as to their potential democratic values even though for a while they might be quite tainted by religious sentience. We are going to have to live with this.
Again, as already written here, we are in 1848. Many of the Arabic countries "revolutions" might end up stolen but we need to manage to have at least one succeed, and help it as much as we can to make it a beacon of hope. Tunisia maybe? They did not have such a chance in 1848.... they had to wait for 1861 and 1870 to see the first glimmers of real results. I do not think we have the luxury to wait for even half a decade..........