This is an article about Libya. There are no links to the situation in Libya because you can google Libya and get lots of stories you can read. There will be other links to make various points.<\/p>\n
I have hesitated to write about Libya because the situation there is changing rapidly and I also don’t have a lot of trust in the news reports coming out of there. You may remember that in April of 2003 Eason Jordan posted an op-ed piece in the New York Times<\/a> explaining that his reporting on Iraq before the US invasion of that country was not complete. Mr. Jordan was concerned for his safety and the safety of his sources and kept that in mind in his reporting. Whether or not you agree with that, it is a fact of life.<\/p>\n The forest I refer to in the headline of this article is the uprisings that have taken place in the Middle East in the past few months–beginning with Egypt. The common element in these uprisings is the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been banned in both Egypt and Libya. The dictators in Egypt and Libya, Mubarak and Gaddafi, are (and were) dictators. They should never have received any sort of support from America (Gaddafi didn’t receive support, but we often turned a blind eye to his activities). However, there are not a lot of Jeffersonian Democrats in the Middle East. We need to keep that in mind. Islam and democracy do not seem to co-exist well for extended periods of time–watch what is happening in Turkey (History News Network<\/a> from George Mason University).<\/p>\n One thing to remember here is the role of Iran in the Middle East. When the Iranian revolution occurred in 1979, a constitution was put in place that calls for the establishment of a world-wide caliphate (Islamic State under Sharia Law). Please remember this as you look at events in the Middle East. It it interesting that the current unrest in the Middle East is in countries that are not currently strong supporters of Sharia Law. I have an uncomfortable feeling that after the smoke clears, many of these formerly secular countries will not longer be secular.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is an article about Libya. There are no links to the situation in Libya because you can google Libya and get lots of stories you can read. There will be other links to make various points. I have hesitated … Continue reading