Tripoli Falls

Libyans celebrate the liberation of Tripoli.

The six month civil war for control of Libya appears to be in its final stages. Tonight Libyan freedom fighters entered into the capital city of Tripoli and were greeted as saviors.

The much-feared possibility that Gaddafi’s forces and the town’s citizens would fight to the death in order to protect their genocidal “Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution” has not come to pass. Indeed, there seems to have been a kind of organized uprising planned to coincide with the arrival of the Libyan rebels.

This all comes despite the decidedly cowardly demeanor adopted by the United States, particularly the office of the President. Barack Obama’s disturbingly strange unwillingness to publicly consider committing the full power of the American military machine towards dethroning a despot that openly murdered American citizens still leaves me with a queasy feeling. The president also made it clear that furthering the cause of democracy in the autocratic world of the Middle-East and Africa is not the business of the United States, and this has only reinforced the opinion in those oppressed regions that America has no interest in honoring our most sacred traditions if it means getting into a fight.

We could have ended this war months ago, but the president chose to leave it in the hands of the militarily inept European powers. These are the same countries that former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates lambasted for being obscenely underprepared to defend themselves.

When Syria sees us behaving this way, there is no wonder Assad feels he may wantonly murder his own people. Why should Iran stop funding Hamas and Hezbollah or rethink its nuclear program when it is clear the only result of continued intransigence will be a stern lecture from the Secretary of State, possibility followed by another round of sanctions (which the Chinese will simply ignore)?