Libya Implodes and U.S. Does Nothing

For the past week the world's attention has been focused on the disaster in Japan and the catastrophic meltdown of its nuclear reactors in the damage region. Before the disaster struck Japan, the media had been focused on the situation in Libya, but since then little has been mentioned or of what U.S. strategy is in regard to Libya.

On March 3, President Obama said that "Colonel Gaddafi needs to step down from power and leave. That is good for his country. It is good for his people. It's the right thing to do." Since the president made this statement weeks ago, Col. Muammar Gaddafi has launched a major counteroffensive against rebels in Eastern Libya, and now is closing on the rebel capital of Benghazi. So far the west and the U.S. have done nothing.

The failure of U.S. strategy toward Libya will have disastrous consequences for the United States in the region. The president has repeatedly stated that Gaddafi must go, but the president has not articulated a strategy of what that is. The message the president is sending to the region and to the world is, if you stand up for democracy and are attacked for it, the U.S. will not be behind you.

One only has to remember the U.S. reaction in Iran after the Iranian people stood up for democracy, only to be brutally attacked. The lesson is, if any pro-democracy demonstrations flare up in a given country, repress it brutally, because the U.S. will look the other way.

It's a sad state of American foreign policy, and catastrophic for the U.S. around the globe.

http://militarybriefingbook.com/browse.cfm?category=Africa&subcategory=North%20Africa