But where were was putin in recent months when the US was taking out ISIS in Misrata? Now, like the jackal he is, he rushes in to save the day.
The dictators, like Kaddafy, have made peaceful change and transition impossible. And any social spending now championed by the article is similar to the propaganda used to glorify Castro.
Also, keep in mind that Kaddafy supplied and trained various terrorist for years to attack US and European interests. His country, like Iraq and Syria, became fertile breeding grounds for Islamist terrorists. Was he better than the chaos that exists right now? Yes, but only because, like Assad he made the choice him, ISIS, or chaos.
I know you blame everyone else for ISIS but ISIS, and McCain in your mind is more responsible for them than Assad, Saddam, of Kaddafy. That theme is contrary to what I've seen in that part of the world.
ISIS are the ones responsible for their actions and the dictators in that region made them who they are.
If the Libyans want to fall under putin's empire, that's their problem, but how will we know this? Will there be a vote. I suspect they won't ever agree to it and that his support for another non-democratic strongman will lead to only more chaos and civil wars, in which we can only hope that many Russians are killed trying to build putin's empire.
I do accept the differences we have on these issues as a difference in how we view the rights of humans. I believe God didn't just give the inalienable right of freedom to Americans. It's a right he desires for all humans. I could accept a dictator, like Franco or the ones in Latin America, who assume power to transition a nation back to order, freedom, and a justice before the law. But these pro-Russian dictators have not been interested in transitioning. Assad is the son of a dicatator, and no doubt if he survives his son will rule Syria.
I believe many posters on this subject are being short sighted and expedient in dismissing freedom for others and making a faustian pact with anyone who will run a police state that protects the West. That model cannot be sustained since the people of those countries are not stakeholders in the fate of their nation. They too will want a say in their government. Destroying ISIS and al Qaeda are good things. Propping up more strongmen who desire, like putin, to be president for life, makes no sense.
By the way, the US South was much poorer for a long time after slavery and the US Civil War. Should the damn Yankees allowed the Union to bust and slavery to prevail so that the South would experience no disorder?