Libya needed our help to get rid of Kaddafi. Kaddafi needed our help because we had him boxed in diplomatically and economically. He was Dubya's boy, remember? Libya needs us now to help them get their shit together while they rebuild their country after the war.

Egypt has always needed our money to support her military caste and her dictatorships. Egypt has no oil, only a strategic location. But she has a shitload of problems.

This is the way great powers run the world, with the carrot as well as the stick. We blackmail, and we let them blackmail us. In Libya, we'll get oil and a political base to use against terrorism. In Egypt, we get an Arab country that is at peace with Israel and can help secure the Suez Canal. With both, we can influence all of N Africa, which allows us leverage in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the middle east.

Is it expensive? Sure it is. But we can afford it, and it beats fighting wars. Unfortunately, to play this game you occasionally do have to fight one.

It IS a game, you do realize that, don't you? Freedom and democracy has nothing to do with any of this. Its strictly business.