[rmlew]

Romney supporting helping Al Qaeda in Libya and attacked the president for not leading the charge to help the AQIM. Romney is either ignorant or a fool. And he has surrounded himself with "neoconservatives" whose stupidity and refusal to learn anything leaves them pissing on the graves of the first generation. In 1980, neocons understood the difference between supporting liberty, and promoting "democratic" revolutions that aid the enemy.

Go read Jean Kirkpatrick's famous Dictatorships & Double Standards and explain to me how Romney and the current generation of neocons are not Jimmy Carter in drag.

[piasa]

Not everyone in Libya is AQIM, as you seem to think. Not everyone in Syria is AQ either, as you seem to think- although the Russians and Iranians would like us all to think so, because they would like to have control over both for themselves, albeit for different reasons. Left as-is both will become AQ strongholds as the most ruthless and most organizaed will gain full control in the absence of a reasonably cohesive restraining force.

There are a wide variety of factions in both countries but the only way the more civil of these options will come to the forefront is if they have some kind of help to provide some stability until they can become at least as welll organized as their enemies and stand a chance. AQ is already organized which is why we can't just walk away- if we are going to walk away we may as well just crown AQ ourselves and give them the keys to NY hotel rooms so they can finish what they started. No one's interest will be serve by allowing either of these places to remain safe havens for terrorist groups. The democratically oriented people there- and there are many in both Libya and Syria- need a strong horse, not a treacherous one-trick pony that's been trained to bow or skip away.

Unfortunately, retreating and letting AQIM and AQ have their way, or Hezbollah and Iran have its way, is not an option. In Libya the deed is done, the original government removed, and there is a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum; we can fill it or someone else will surely fill it, and that someone else is not a nice bunch. 9/11 was the result of walking away from Afghanistan and leaving a vacuum which then was filled by Pakistan with Taliban.

Hezbollah over the years not only filled the vacuum of Lebanon but spilled over and flowed around the world, becoming firmly established even in our hemisphere, and bold enough to plan attacks in our own country; it is not going to just pack up and leave one day on its own out of the goodness of its heart.

One way or another, we are going to have to find a way to help the least threatening and or most useful factions gain the upper hand. Something is going to fill the void in Libya and Syria and the west is much better off if it has some influence in choosing who and what that will be rather than letting it go to the default setting, which is always the most violent.