@failures art,
failures art wrote:
Obama was too wishy washy with the US's response on Egypt. Who knows how many more died during inaction. Things could have progressed and resolution could have come earlier.
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What, exactly should Obama have done, or probably more accurately, said ? Tough words with no real intent for action to back them up aren't likely to deflect a desperate despot trying to hold on to his position. Indeed even a very palpable threat of action didn't do anything to reduce the killings Saddam inflicted on the Iraqis. In general talk with no action to back it up is worse than silence - it is a public demonstration of impotence or indifference. (Perhaps it could bee seen as a salve to the consciences of some airheads, but that is not a serious benefit and certainly not something likely to deflect a despot ready to kill his opponents.)
I suspect that is precisely why Sec. Clinton chose to simply make a press release, rather than some dramatic spoken pronouncment.
The truth is neither the African Union, nor the nearby European powers have any appetite for intervention of any kind. Certainly the remaining authoritarian Muslim states aren't going to do or say anything either. In these circumstances, what would a little scolding from us do?
Consider, for a moment the ghastly killings in Croatia and Bosnia following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and how long it took and how much effort was required to induce the European powers to do something about the ethnic cleansing going on in their own backyards. Consider also how long the killings continued in Southern Sudan before any concerted action by neighboring states and the major powers could be mobilized. Consider China's seizure of Tibet; the oppression and starvation in North Korea; 50 years of poverty and oppression in Cuba -- these are all evils as bad or worse than what is going on in Lybia.
Consider also the errors and unanticipated side effects of U.S. attempts at intervention, and the nearly world-wide hostility we get as a result. It simply isn't worth the candle: better to simply look out for our own real interests.
