Just When I Thought Things Were At Their Worst!

I do applaud my readers who have been arguing my point that it was correct for the UN, with the inclusion of the US, to take action to support the Libyan civilians.

 The argument now is where should it stop.  I'd say right about now.  The rebels have been given their chance to regroup, obtain weapons and mount an offensive or their defenses. They have a civil war on their hands and the direction it takes is in the hands of the two sides.  We encouraged them.  It is not right to abandon them after having done so.  We've done that before.  Ask the Iraqi's about the time after the first Gulf war.

What has made this action so precarious is that civil wars are breaking out all across the region.  It is highly unusual and for so many all at once.  My readers are right.   We can't intervene in all of them.

I'm not going to get into whether or not Obama had the constitutional right to take the action he did.  The War Powers Act,  I believe, says he did. At least his interpretation of it.  But now what? Uprisings are occurring in Syria, Israel is firing on Gaza, Hamas is firing on Israel,  there is Yemen and on and on.  Muslims are fighting Muslims and Jews and vice versa.  No matter, it's war everywhere and one is no more brutal than another.  Civilians are still getting slaughtered.  Sometimes I think we should rope off the entire region and let them duke it out among themselves.  The question that constantly bothers me, however, and it's what I've been writing about, is what if any moral obligation is there when the sides are so unevenly matched.

The answers will play out on the world stage over the upcoming months to be sure.

Let's assume for a moment that there are those who think we did the right thing. We can use some redemption in the eyes of many Muslims.  So what happens? Reverend Terry Jones turns up again.  Remember him?  The pastor of the 50 member church that was going to burn the Koran in protest to the proposed Islamic center in New York? It took no less than the Justice Department to dissuade him.

Well, this time he did it.  It is reported that Sunday they held a mock trial of the Koran while one soaked in kerosene and was then burned.  Onlookers were said to have posed for photos.

A question was posed at the end of the article asking what might happen if a photo of the event, real or photo shopped, were to turn up on the Internet.  The article did.  Is the photo far behind? Or is the article fuel enough?

One man and his 50 followers. Another of those God fearing ministers. During this time of turmoil when the US is trying to negotiate an extremely slippery slope, they have to pull this.

Freedom of speech.  All I can do is roll my eyes, shake my head and pronounce from the top of my lungs that all Americans are not like this!