Reply #13: Editorial: Troubled spring

[pinboy3niner]

Source: Toledo Blade

Published: 5/9/2011



...


The Syrian government calls the protesters terrorists.


That’s better than Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who said al-Qaeda slipped hallucinogens into the coffee of young people to make them revolt. Gadhafi, however, may succeed in waiting out his foreign and domestic opponents.


The NATO allies that control the skies above Libya — ostensibly to protect civilians — are growing weary of the military stalemate. NATO members are considering whether to finance the rebellion rather than to continue air strikes.

...


What these fragile democratic movements need, journalist David Ignatius wrote in Foreign Policy magazine, are good leadership and foreign support. The United States and the Obama Administration can provide both.


The growth of democracy in the Middle East and North Africa is in the interests of the United States. So is a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and broader Arab-Israeli disputes. Access to Middle Eastern oil and combatting Islamic terrorism also are vital U.S. interests, which sometimes conflict. But that should not stop President Obama from lending strong support to the cause of democracy wherever it emerges.


And it should not stop the President from making clear to dictatorial regimes that they can either ride the rising tide of freedom or risk being drowned by it.


http://toledoblade.com/Editorials/2011/05/09/Troubled-spring.html