Turning a Blind Eye

Obama was at his Mighty Mouse best during his Libyan speech the other night, giving his reasons for the delayed response to the Libyan crisis.  With what courage and aplomb did he herald himself as the leader of the free world and democracy, leading 30 other nations to do – not very much in this situation.

Simply by creating a no-fly zone, he single-handedly prevented a massacre, by his account.  With a wave of his hand, he sent Secretary of State Clinton to London to deliberate peacefully what to do about the heavily-armored Gaddafi.  What protects Gaddafi is not his military, though; it’s the oil fields. 

Just like in Vietnam in the Sixties, in the end, it’s all about the oil.  Only one percent of Libya is arable.  For them, it’s pretty oil or nothing.  Italy, France, Germany and Spain had been Libya’s best customers.  Since China has grown an appetite for oil, the demographics have changed somewhat, and they’re now at the head of the list.

Libya has a population of about 7 million people, about the same as New York City, with 76,000 active troops, mostly on the Mediterranean.  The city of Banghazi has a population of about 1.2 million, well-educated and mainly employed in service industries.

Gaddafi has certainly been a bad boy and probably deserves to be ousted.  He and his agents were responsible for a number of terrorist bombings, including a disco in West Berlin in 1986, Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, and another airliner bombing, UTA Flight 772 over Niger.  The U.N. imposed sanctions until Gaddafi was made to heel and promised never, ever again to commit a terrorist act.  But then the Scots had to go release Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, who’d been sentenced to life in prison for the Lockerbie bombing, on supposedly humanitarian grounds.  At the same, the United Kingdom and Libya had struck an oil deal.  Al-Megrahi was personally welcomed home by Gaddafi as a hero.

“Of course, there is no question that Libya – and the world – will be better off with Gaddafi out of power,” said our president.   “I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means. Broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.

“To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and – more profoundly – our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different.  And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.”

Turning a “blind eye”, Obama dismissed the struggles of the democracy-loving masses in Iran.  He and the Liberal media turned a blind eye towards Saddam Hussein’s massacre of the Kurds in Iraq.  That just wasn’t a good enough reason for a military intervention in that country.  Certainly, if massacres weren’t, the Kirkuk oil fields, the largest outside of Saudi Arabia were an even worse reason.  “Blood for oil!” they cried.  “The fuel of the evil Capitalist West!”

Gaddafi, like Mubarak, is sitting on a pile of money, some of which is said to be American foreign aid.  That would be the surest way to dethrone these dictators, by depriving them of their despot welfare.  However, we don’t really know who his opponents are.  Rumors are that they’re either Al Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood.  Gaddafi knows he has a problem with them.  Like Obama, he straddles the middle of the fence trying to appease both sides.

By the accounts of such experts as Andrew McCarthy, Obama is not only turning a blind eye to the dangers of a rising Islamism, but would blind Americans to that danger.  We are in a bind – Europe is in a bind – because we’re dependent upon Middle Eastern oil and we’re in competition with oil-hungry China and India.

No foundation for free, fair trade is sound in the shifting sands of the Middle East, where an ally can be a treacherous as our worst enemy.  Communist leftists, meanwhile, are busy with their sand shovels undermining whatever foundation exists.  The choices we have in dealing with them are all bad – bribery, military intervention, economic sanctions, capitulation, and slavery.

Not only is the West blind, but mute, and shackled in its attempts to bridge an impassable cultural chasm.