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Zophar posted:Obama has to do something to respond to people bitching about gas prices and simultaneously doesn't want to be on the wrong side of history? Gadhaffi is clearly unstable and is thus no longer a reliable ally. He was prized only for his ability to maintain order, and when that went, so did his value. No one is going to back a losing horse.
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Mar 20, 2011 01:22
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Zophar posted:Well of course, I was responding to evilweasel's assertion that restoring his power would be the quickest way to stabilize prices, but anybody can see that's doubly stupid (not to mention morally bankrupt) for a variety of reasons. At least this way the administration can say they're doing something to address the gas woes and still be the good guys. I'm not going to claim that economics isn't a huge driving force in international politics, but in this case you gotta believe that the nations of the west would be extremely pleased with functional, stable democracies in the Middle East (that are not named Israel), even at the expense of some small short-term oil price increases. And the reason the Obama administration didn't intervene earlier (in my mind) is that they saw that it would be counter-productive. By remaining studiously neutral until it was all decided, they got the outcome they desired without compromising its chances of success, AND they hedged their bets in case the reigning governments pulled through. Not bad, really. quote:It's always amazing to see just how infantile dictators are when push comes to shove. What you see him doing is the kind of shifting the blame away and lying about their accomplishments that children do as schoolyard bullies. Dictators are literally just overgrown manchildren who like to play dress-up. (Literally in Gaddafi's case with his cartoonish war uniforms.) Gadhaffi is basically Charlie Sheen if Charlie Sheen were in charge of a country.
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Mar 20, 2011 06:50
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I'm guessing Libya at the moment looks like that scene from the end of Return of the Jedi after the Emperor dies. Tribal music, singing, dancing. Excised from the DVD version for being wildly out of place.
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Oct 20, 2011 23:23
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