Change must come from within

The lack of any discussions on invading Libya, as conservatives/militarists were wont to do in the Bush years, shows what an abject failure the Iraq War has been. Several factors would seem to make this an ideal target for nation-building:

• A government that clearly lacks popular support and is surviving only by massacring protesters
• A significant amount of crude oil reserves and production
• A past sponsor of international terrorism

When Iran started ramping up its centrifuges or cracking down on opposition to its most hard-line religious faction, many Republicans started arguing for a military option. Now they have stayed silent on Libya. Besides that they do not really support democracy (more on that on a future post, though you can google the likes of Rush Limbaugh on Hosni Mubarak), there is now widespread public acknowledgment that the Iraq War had failed in just about every way. There is simply no more stomach for another venture like it.

As an old joke said, change must come from within.