Libya Our Next Iraq?

Following the "fall" of Tripoli on Tuesday, I heard an NPR reporter say that Libyan oil revenues would provide the funds for rebuilding the country. I shook my head when I heard that one and immediately called a like-minded friend. I said to him, "Hmmmm....Sound familiar?" He chuckled, then said, "And I bet Halliburton will get the rebuilding contract." (Halliburton, the mega-company that was given a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq, but which simply absconded with a lot of money. The same company in which VP Dick Cheney was heavily invested and had been at the helm before becoming vice president.)

On the same news program, I heard an interview with the current Libyan ambassador to the U.S., the same guy who had been the Kadafi/Gaddafi/Qaddafi's ambassador to the U.S. until he jumped ship a few months ago. He reported that $160-170 billion in Libyan assets are in banks around the world. Just like Iraq, a whole heck of a lot of unaccounted-for money.

The third disturbing thing is the raid on the Kadafi's arsenals, which no one is guarding. So, just like Iraq, we'll end up with a plethora of young, restless, unemployed men with guns. Whatever you want to say about Kadafi, he united the country and kept ethnic tensions in check, just as every strongman from the former Soviet Union to the former Yugoslavia to Iraq once did. But once they were gone, all hell broke loose.

So now what? What's your guess? Mine? It sure ain't over yet.

Obama Supporters: Obama's Better. We Just Can't Tell You How.

While at the farmers' market this morning, I stopped by the Obama-for-president table and asked the two people who were staffing it: "Could you tell me what Obama has done for the country?" They couldn't come up with a single thing, though they apologized that they didn't have their crib sheets with them.

They did, however, challenge me to write down the things he had said he'd do and hasn't done. With no preparation and no access to the Internet, I listed a dozen, with "rescind the Patriot Act" at the top of my list.

I spoke with them for about 10 minutes, and the only reason they had for supporting Obama is that he's better than Michele Bachmann. I said, "So in other words, you're saying that he's the lesser of two evils?" They agreed. I told them that if you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you'll continue to vote in evil. They agreed, saying that's what American politics are. I said, "But that's not democracy."

The subject of Ron Paul came up. They liked his anti-interventionist, bring-the-troops-home, don't-militarily-mess-with-the-affairs-of-other-coutries, anti-Federal Reserve platform, but were afraid he'd get rid of Medicare and Social Security. I said, "Just wait. Obama will get rid of them too."