What were the real reasons for the invasion of Libya?

As I write this, a new day is dawning in Libya. The “people’s revolt” against yet another tyrant is unquestionably exciting, and the demise (political and/or otherwise) of Muammar Qaddafi will, of course, be widely hailed. But barely below the surface something else is going on, and it concerns not the Libyan “people”, but an elite. In reality, a narrowly-based Libyan elite is being supplanted by a much older, more enduring one of an international variety.

The media, as is so often the case, has botched its job. Thus virtually all of its resources over the past six months have gone into providing us with an entertainment, a horse race, a battle, with almost no insight into the deeper situation.

It’s true that Qaddafi, like many – perhaps a majority of – rulers in his region, was a thug and a brute, if at times a comical figure. But one doesn’t need to be an apologist for him – nor deny the satisfaction of seeing the citizenry joyously celebrating his ouster – to demand some honesty about the motives behind his removal. Especially when it comes to our own government’s role in funding it, and thus every American’s unwitting participation in that action. More...

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