“Obama was complicit in the destruction of both of these governments, which while they were undeniably dictatorships, were much more tolerant of non-Muslims, women, etc., and had generally been brought/bought to cooperate with us.”
Let’s get some facts in here. Kaddhafi ordered his military to shoot Libyans. That’s not tolerance. Most of the Libyan military, except his elite guard, refused to do so. Then Kaddhafi mobilized his mercenary armies in southern Libya, and they did start shooting Libyans. Most of the Libyan army deserted, taking their arms with them, and headed back to their provinces to protect their homes. They joined up with the provincial militias, which are equivalent to our state guards, made a battle plan and drove out the mercenaries.
The left wing media squealed after the militias started hanging the mercenaries from lampposts because a good number of these mercenaries were black Africans. This was not politically correct.
They were even more upset when the militias dragged Kaddhafi’s bureaucrats into the town square and executed them. These commie bureaucrats were dear komrades of Hillary and the commies in the state department. Many of these Kaddhafi loyalists were caught trying to escape Libya, and their SUVs were loaded with American dollars and Libyan treasures.
In sum, Kaddhafi wasn’t a friend toward non-Muslims and women. Kaddhafi cared only about himself and his power, much like the current infestation occupying our whitehouse.
And just to set matters straight, the Muslim Brotherhood is not part of the Libyan government. It’s in Egypt where they rule.
I said Khaddhafi was a dictator, and I didn’t say he was a nice guy or ran the country well. However, we had a known property there, and while he was not supportive of the US in any way, he was somewhat intimidated and could be kept in line.
And he actually did ignore if not tolerate the non-Muslims there, if only, for one thing, because he himself belonged to a slightly odd sect of Islam. The mainstream Islamists had been agitating to take over for a long time, however, and this was the group pursued by his secret police and also the group that eventually was leading the mobs into the street. There were other problems (economic uncertainty, etc.) which enabled them to gain support among the less Islamically inclined.
There were probably some innocents there who honestly thought they were just going to have a nice secular democratic regime once they got rid of Kaddhafi, but most people (except the starry-eyed Arab Spring types in the US) probably knew they were trading one dictatorship for another and much more far-reaching one. I’d say there were no good guys in this fight, but from our point of view, it would have been better to stick with a dictator who was not a mainstream Islamist, had a strong government, and could be controlled to some extent.
As Truman, I think it was, said about some Latin American dictator, “he may be a bast*rd, but he’s our bast*rd.”
Right now, we’ve ended up with situations all over the ME where we can’t control anything and have no leverage. This is because we actually have NO Middle East policy, and these countries also know that we are so weak that the foreign aid is going to keep flowing no matter what they do.
“...the Muslim Brotherhood is not part of the Libyan government. It’s in Egypt where they rule.”
Factual, yet irrelevant.
Regardless, the people who are in control of the government are radical Muslims and they did nothing to stop the announced protest and or storming of our embassy.