On Aug. 23, I laughed at my television as an exultant Libyan rebel wearing one of former Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi's obnoxious hats exclaimed, "I just went inside his room, Gadhafi's bedroom, and I was really, I was like Oh my God'. I am in Gadhafi's room. Oh my God. Then this thing happened. I found this [referring to the hat], oh my goodness." Good for you buddy, and good for the rest of Libya, which celebrated the end of Gadhafi's 42-year reign last Thursday. This is a victory not only for the Libyan people but also for the application of American interventionism.
In some ways similar to the Libyan intervention, the U.S. invasion of Iraq began with grand expectations of deposing a bad guy and creating reverberations that would be felt across the Arab world. Some war planners had hoped that this would be the spark that resulted in democratic revolutions across the Middle East and Africa. However, another group also had grand intentions for revolution in the Arab world Al Qaeda. Neither groups' aims were fully realized Al Qaeda's bloody violence resulted in a loss of public support and the United States was caught in a brutal sectarian conflict.
Eight years later, however, we see a very different pan-Arab world. Beginning with the uprisings in Tunisia, cries for democracy echoed across the Middle East. These revolutionary sparks weren't the grand uprisings that Al Qaeda had hoped to see. Although Islam had a part to play in the uprisings, the uprisings weren't about Islam. Instead, they were about a group of people who demanded the freedoms they saw others enjoying on the television, internet and social media platforms that have come to define globalization. As if to punctuate Al Qaeda's loss of standing across the Arab world, Osama bin Laden died at the hands of U.S. forces with little more than a peep from his once-active supporters.
When the rumblings of revolution started in Libya, Europe seemed poised to respond. Back here in the States, three basic responses developed: push hard, tread softly or stay out of it. Most of Congress was divided into either the push-hard or stay-out-of-it camps. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., advocated for the push-hard crew and prepared to lead the "our president is a sissy" bandwagon, while Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., voiced concerns about overextending U.S. forces. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama remarked that he had Secretary of State Hilary Clinton throwing rocks outside his window because she wanted the United States to get involved.In the end, the president tacitly gave the reins to Britain and France, who took the ball and ran with it. The United States would "lead from behind."
At the same time, Bachmann and others in Congress decried the possibility of mission creep and the illegality of the Libyan intervention. At every stage of the intervention, there was groaning from Congress about getting ourselves into an endless quagmire
Well, it did end. The United States spent $1 billion and lost no service members in helping overthrow a repressive authoritarian regime a pittance compared to $1 trillion and 4,465 war dead in Iraq. One billion dollars to take out a cruel dictator sounds like a good deal to me I'd take it any day of the week. Also, the boots-on-the-ground aspect of the revolution was accomplished by the Libyan people themselves.
The victory over Gadhafi is one more indication of the strategic shift in how the United States executes interventionism. As we draw down forces in Afghanistan and drones drop bombs on the heads of insurgents with increasing consistency, the terrorist death list grows. Aspiring terrorists moving up the terrorist watch list would do well to get their affairs in order. In less than a year, we have witnessed the deaths of Bin Laden and Anwar Al-Awalki, and in a short 215 days the coalition-supported Libyan rebels have turned another page in the book that is the Arab Spring.
I hope that the sights and sounds coming out of Libya hearten Muslims living in oppression across the Arab world. Last week, the president authorized the deployment of 100 Special Forces soldiers to help advise the Ugandan military in fighting the Lord's Resistance Army, an insurgent group known for kidnapping and forcibly conscripting children. This positive step indicates a continued U.S. willingness to intervene militarily albeit under a different tactical framework. As democratization pushes its way deeper into Africa, more bad guys will need to fall.
