Sunday, March 27, 2011

How to Handle Civil Wars

  Tom Ricks touched on an idea I had been developing for this blog. He was on Meet the Press earlier this morning along with Bob Woodward, Ted Koppel and Samantha Guthrie. They discussed the U.S. role in Libya. Tom Ricks said something like "we've already kicked the door in" so we have an obligation to stay on board. That ties in to an analogy that I have been thinking about for a long time. But first, I want to share my thoughts on the idea of civil war and the roles I think people/governments should take in these types of conflicts.

  I don't like war. It's ugly. The cost of war on a human level is often times higher than what the overall outcome is worth. I also understand that there are times that war must be waged. There are wars in the Old Testament, so I suspect that God knows this is a part of the human journey. We all have to fight and struggle at some level during our lives. And sometimes that means picking up a bat or a gun or simply having the courage to say the words that need to be said.

  Civil wars almost always have that buzz word around them. "Liberty." That word always sounds pretty on the surface. We seldom ask what someone's idea of liberty is. We just assume it means the same to everyone. If a group of people feel so strongly about their idea of liberty that they feel they need to fight and kill for it then I have no problem with that. Get it done. But, don't start lobbing bullets and realize that you're outgunned and overmatched and need help. If you need help you should have had that in place to begin with. Even then that doesn't always guarantee victory. Look at the Bay of Pigs. All that did was get a bunch of Cubans killed and turn Castro into a lifelong enemy to the U.S.

  I believe that for a civil war to birth liberty the elements that fight for that liberty have to walk throught the fire. Let me illustrate it like this. I'm sure that most of us know or knew (or are) the kid that got everything handed to them. When he turned 16 his parents bought him a new Corvette. When she turned 18 her parents paid for her furnished apartment. When I was 17 I worked 50 hours a week and went to school and hardly had enough time or money to do anything. Who do you think treasures the things they have in life the most? For the group that fights for that change in their society, the outcome is sweeter and means more because of the sacrifice made to bring about that change. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have outside support, but they should have to carry most of the weight themselves.

  The situation in Libya has it's own set of problems now. This week there has been chatter about what we are doing over there and about stepping back and letting the UK or France take the lead. I've always felt this is more of an operation for the UK to lead anyway. And at this point it's too late to apply the philosophy I've stated above. We failed to have a clear game plan from the start on this thing. It's like we walked of a cliff in the dark, landed in a lake and just now popped our head through the surface.

  This brings me to the illustration that I had been thinking about this week and the words that Tom Ricks used today on MtP.

  Imagine that there is a married couple that live down the street. Not next door. A few houses down. The neighborhood knows that the man is abusive and suffers from some sort of mental problem. Possibly nuerosyphilis. The wife only stays with the man because this is her home and she has nowhere else to go. Let's say that one day the couple begin fighting. You have a lot of things going on in your life and don't need the extra headache, but you decide to get a couple of buddies and go do something about this guy and his wife. Let's say your buddies are smaller than you and don't own any weapons besides a plastic broom handle. You get your 12 guage Remington 870 loaded with 00 buckshot and the three of you head down the street.

 The door takes a couple of kicks but eventually swings wide open. The sight of the shotgun paralyzes the insane wife-beater long enough for the wife to wack him a couple of times with a table lamp. He retreats to the other side of the living room and your two buddies stand between the two to stop any further physical fighting. This is where we are at in Libya. Now what?

  Let's say at this point you start to feel like you didn't think this through very well. There are better ways this could have been handled, but you decided to go this route. Let's say you abruptly walk out of the room. As you get back home you hear two muffled pops, a scream and then a third pop. Turns out the abusive husband had a .38 hidden in his waistband and when you took your shotgun and went home he offed your friends and the wife. Then he cooked a t.v. dinner and caught the American Idol results show.

  We've already helped open the door in Libya. We have already participated in aggression against a foreign government (even though Gadafi is an evil, insane man he is still the ruler of that country). And to leave now would seal Obama's fate as the first "Jimmy Carter" of the 21st century.   
 
  Earlier this week I caught the NBC Nightly News report where journalist Richard Engel was embedded with a group of rebels in Libya (watch the video). I don't know that I would have enough courage to carry a toy gun into battle. If we have to leave, lets try to toss the shotgun to the wife. It may not change the outcome, but it gives her a chance.

 

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