Libyan Rebels in Ras Lanuf
The Obama administration has faced massive world crisis over the past couple months. Not only is the administration tackling the countries deep economic issues, they’re facing massive unrest in the Middle East, and now, trying to provide nuclear knowledge, supplies and other support to the Japanese after their devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Over the past two weeks, however, America’s position on the unrest in Libya seems to have taken center stage. If we jumped in Cowboy style, the U.S. would be faced with more devastating military expenditures for the next several years, and Ghadafi could easily sway arab sentiment back to seeing America as “meddling” in Arab affairs. If we stayed out of the situation, we’d be criticized around the world for not supporting democracy when it’s begging at our doorstep.
Today, President Obama showed his international leadership during a nationally televised speech where he outlined an intervention planned created cooperatively with European and Arab nations. By developing international support for and enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya and military response if Libyan aggression against its citizens continues, President Obama has likely embarked on the best bang for our buck in stabilizing the situation in Libya.
If successful, this will help stabilize our markets which have oscillated at break-neck speed, and it should reverse some of big oil’s price hikes they punished Americans with due to the “threat” of oil supply disruption which hasn’t really happened. Also, if successful, other countries will continue to support the effort to ensure continued success. If it’s not successful, it will not be the U.S. caught holding the bag with other countries distancing themselves from us, and the U.S. won’t be footing the bill for another quagmire. All participating countries will scramble to improve the situation alongside the U.S.
This is good diplomacy, and it’s good economic sense for our country.
Cloud to Ground 