Should We Celebrate Gaddafi's Death?

     Gaddafi is dead.  For the next several days, American politicians will congratulate the Libyan people and try to project a friendly image, showing solidarity with the new powers emerging in Libya, whoever they may be (see picture above, from the Herald Sun, Australia).  The Western news agencies seem to suggest near universal rejoicing in Libya at Gaddafi's death.  
     Gaddafi was a tyrant and in many ways appeared to be a lunatic.  But now the Libyans are faced with the very real need to rebuild a country.  Nobody seems to know who the new leaders will be in Libya.  Who is Mahmoud Jibril, the interim Prime Minister?  Can we really depend upon the Muslim Brotherhood to evolve into a moderate organization?
     I confess to being very skeptical on these points.  I don't believe that Muslim peoples in the Middle East like Israel or the US, which is Israel's greatest ally.  
     American politicians always think that they will be able to make friends with the Muslim peoples through military action.  Remember the bombings of Serbians in the former Yugoslavia?  Have you ever heard anyone thank the US for doing that? 
    No.  The reason is that these people hate everything that we stand for.  
    After a few weeks have passed, no one will thank the US or its NATO allies for carrying out air operations against Gaddafi's military.    
    According to Al Jazeera blogger Mahmood Mamdani, "in just about every African country, the opposition is drooling at the prospect of Western intervention in the aftermath of the fall of Gaddafi."  It's a simple formula now.  According to Mamdani, if you want political power in one of these third world countries, you should get the United Nations to blame the party in power for "crimes against humanity," which will justify military intervention.  
     Only a few people criticized former President Bush for making a pre-emptive first strike against Iraq, based on fear that they could threaten the US with "weapons of mass destruction."
     Now, Obama has lowered the threshold for intervention even further.  He decided to order Gaddafi to step down, basically just because Gaddafi was a nincompoop.  But so are most other leaders  in the region.  And come to think of it, there are some leaders in Europe and Asia that are also nincompoops (we won't even ask the question about American leaders,okay?).  We have already told Assad in Syria that it's time to go on permanent vacation.  Where does it all end?  
    Apparently, President Obama doesn't have enough problems of his own to worry about, and it is now America's business to take sides in political factions in Libya, Syria and other countries in the region. 
   My guess is that within a short time, Libya will find another leader who is an even bigger nincompoop than Gaddafi ever was.  







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