The Libyan Situation

Events in Libya are going from bad to worse. In a never ending cornucopia of conflicting statements, Obama has gone from "All options are on the table" to "No ground troops no matter what happens". Germany has pulled their naval vessels and AWACS aircraft out as they don't want to have anything to do with this should NATO assume command, meaning they'd have some obligation.

Now an Al Qaeda commander has released a message backing the rebels! Of course the fall of these long standing Arab regimes has been an Al Qaeda dream that is coming true. They will have a hand in events yet to transpire and as in all leadership vacuums, it's the best prepared that win so I'm sticking to what I said over a month ago that Al Qaeda is probably very busy setting up communications, liaisons, provisions and other elements that will give them an early foot in the door once the people and in Libya's case (maybe the coalition) takes down these regimes.

The image the allies are projecting is going to cause long term trouble in the region, it sets a precedent that they don't have the ability to effectively stop a would be despot from doing whatever they choose in putting down rebellions or establishing new governments. It's amazing to me that so many leaders show so little leadership. In the US alone, the message changes several times a day, it's no wonder Hillary Clinton is marking each day on her calendar with an X until 2012 comes. I have to say, in my opinion, this is largely the fault of the US. We have the ability (perhaps not the obligation) to put together a coalition, to have a plan and a set of goals as well as an exit strategy. Obama has been on Presidential vacation through all of this and can't even keep his cabinet on message, clearly because he hasn't formulated a message and more then likely, an opinion.

The consequences of what's happening now, in the long term, may be worse then the consequences of not having acted at all.

Again, the middle east just becomes more dangerous. Developed and leading economies are that much more in the hole and strategic alliances are likely to be tested to the breaking point. This is clearly happening in Europe, it's been happening economically for a year, perhaps this will be another nail in the coffin of that great experiment called the Euro-Zone.

On another front, I'm still waiting to hear the outcome of the Greek vote.