Quote:
Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
And why weren't Americans prepared to provide any meaningful support to the Arab Spring?
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There was a true battle in State Dept about whether it was too much destabilization at once.
Recall, it was a vendor setting himself on fire to protest corrupt regulation one day, then a govt falling thirty days later. I think it took everyone by surprise.
And of course, Israel pressured us like crazy to avoid Egypt’s corrupt dictator’s collapse.
The concern that in a countries with such high unemployment and so many young men, radicalism fills the vacuum left by a dictator’s exit is compelling. My opinion, FWIW, is once the movement has started, we should have publicly taken that risk. But I see Obama’s shrewdness in trying to trying to have it both ways by supporting covertly and with air cover in Libya. If you can have it both ways and avoid risk, why not try?
Others would argue this is why lawyers don’t tend to make good leaders of anything. I’d counter, Bush “led” quite aggressively in Iraq. How’d that work out?
