Libya

The recent political kerfuffle over Obama's intervention in Libya is the perfect Catch-22. As was inevitable, military equipment has been destroyed, and civilians killed - by us. We own this conflict in a way that no one can diminish - mission creep is going to get worse unless we have set up (privately) a CLEAR AND ABSOLUTE end of commitment.

If we hadn't intervened, you can bet the GOP would have made a huge fuss that Obama had let the rebels die (which is what would have happened by today). As it stands, they're criticizing him for getting us into another conflict, and that's one thing about being POTUS - sometimes you just have to take it on the political chin; it's part of the office's responsibility, and something I hope other presidents will emulate.

I am still an opponent of intervention - the success of Egypt is that they survived and made it work without outside help; while the dictator's survival in Libya/the crush of the rebels would have sent the wrong message, I don't think a doctrine of intervention is going to do us many favors either. These revolutions have been shown, absolutely, to work. Citizens should now concentrate on organizing for the next round of uprisings, with the knowledge that time allows evil regimes to consolidate power.

Lessons should be learned and absorbed; it's not wise for us to push this too hard, and certainly strategically stupid to open all of the rebels to charges of Western influence. We shouldn't make ourselves a propaganda boogyman, and I fear that's the ultimate effect of our actions.