If The US Is Reluctant To Intervene In Libya, The Arab World Is To Blame

Obama has taken a lot of heat for dragging his feet when it comes to taking decisive action to help the Libyan rebels against Gaddafi.

But to be fair, writes Michael Totten, the Arab world shares the blame for the West's reluctance to intervene in Libya:

As forces loyal to Libya's cruel and de ranged tyrant Moammar Khadafy re conquer one rebel-held city after an other, the Arab League and the Arabic press are calling for a no-fly zone over the country to tip, or at least even, the odds. While I'm inclined to help the Libyans on humanitarian grounds and to advance our own national interests, the American public's appetite is low for intervening on behalf of the rebels -- and it's largely the Arab world's fault.


Last time Americans led a coalition to topple a mass-murdering dictatorship in the Middle East, the Arab League and the Arabic press hysterically denounced us as imperialist crusaders fighting a war for oil and Israel. Egged on by al-Jazeera, they cheerleaded the "resistance" that killed thousands of our soldiers with roadside bombs in the years that followed.

Here at home, liberals fear and loathe the very idea of another Iraq, which to them is "Vietnam" conjugated in Arabic -- and many conservatives are hardly more willing to risk American treasure and lives for people who aren't necessarily our friends, who may well take shots at us after they're liberated and who might build a new aggressive regime of their own.

Totten notes that not all Arabs condemned and attacked the US after removing Saddam Hussein from power--the Kurds in Northern Iraq welcomed the US, and are known for being pro-American. Unlike the Kurds, it is the Arabs in central and southern Iraq who turned to insurgency.

Regarding the Arab world in general, Totten concludes:

They might find that if they treated us more like the Kurds do, more of us will be willing to help them in the future -- rather than shun them as hostiles who deserve to be left to their fate.

Whatever you may think of it, Obama has made his overture to the Muslim world--now it is their turn.

Technorati Tag: Libya and Middle East and and Arab World.