I swear I begin to question the wisdom of my opinions on Libya et al given how many would be conservatives out there seem to disagree with me - being at variance with liberals on such issues is to be expected - and I've already said I believe Obama's slow footed response has more to do with the military's/Gates' extreme fear of mission creep than it has to do with strategizing/equivocation/running for cover by Obama - but that so many from the right seem to support action here and harshly mock Obama and therefore by association Gates and Petraeus for his/their flight from same makes me wonder if I have any clue what the hell I'm talking about.
Now, no doubt my cynical view of religion in toto and Islam in particular jaundices my take - conservatives of course, perfectly willing to pillory Islamic extremism, are not so quick to question religious conviction as a whole and therefore don't want so much to get into a comparative analysis of Christianity and Islam or the downside of varieties of religious fervor in general - I on the other hand view religion as sociological phenomenon and so don't have the problem - whether this accounts for gulf between my uber skepticism and their seeming blind faith viz prospects for democracy or at least moderation in wake of these upheavals and consequent willingness to imagine America's possible involvement in a positive light as regards etc etc, I dunno. Could be that.
I know that I'm hearing increasingly from these 'optimists' dire warnings about fallout from a now much more likely Qaddafi win [remember these optimists were convinced a couple weeks ago that Qaddafi was finished while realists like myself were cautioning not so fast] - Qaddafi will go back into the terrorism business, the nuke business, will slaughter thousands of his 'opponents' etc etc - possibilities that I'm not gonna deny - but of course there are dire fallout scenarios aplenty attached to American action just as surely if not more so than with our inaction - and yet these optimists are more than willing to look past or marginalize these dark potentialities in order to promote involvement - which says to me their enthusiasm is more ideological than it is strategic.
