Libya

I supported Obama's Libya intervention from the beginning. It seems to me that after decades of enabling Arab dictatorships in various ways the United States has an obligation to help the Arab people, in this Arab Spring, take control of their own destinies. Strategically the success of the Arab Spring is our best hope to contain Islamic terrorists. In Egypt and Tunisia that support was public pressure and behind the scenes. In Syria it is necessarily through diplomatic and economic, rather than military pressure, unless the regime loses significant control. In Bahrain we have failed to live up to our principles. In Libya there was a clear risk of massacres which we had an opportunity to prevent. Once we chose to intervene the only real choice was to maintain the pressure until Gaddafi was gone.

I wonder whether our invasion of Iraq accelerated, delayed, or had no effect on the Arab Spring. If rising food prices were necessary to sustain a broad-based rebellion, you might argue that US intervention drive up the price of oil, giving the dictatorships extra cash to hold down prices. Combined with rising nationalism over the foreign occupation of a major Arab state.

Gaddafi's defeat is another foreign policy win for Obama, combined with withdrawal from Iraq and killing bin Laden and Obama has guaranteed his Republican opponent won't be playing the weak on defense card.