Charlie Rose

futurevisionaries  07/12/2011 09:04 PM Report

we need to think of ways we all people all countries can work together . Ideas of people share with brand FUTURE . for and by the people . best KGA .www.futurevisionaries.com

PaulReiser  04/10/2011 08:01 PM Report

"For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety."

"If you go to war, you need guidance. If you want to win, you need many good advisers." - Book of Wisdom

I think I know a good advisor for the libyan rebels and for the french: Stanley A. McChrystal

http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/6785

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal

He would be a good adviser for Sarkozy, the french militaries and the libyan opposition. Because of his experience he would have a great influence on the libyan rebels.

He has experience in hunting regime elements (Iraq) and making a COIN. Gaddafi's military elite is trained by the british Special Air Service and some of his high ranks are trained by the US-Army. McCrystal was an US-general and he have commanded Delta Force, which is similar to the british SAS. McCrystal knows the enemy's level of knowledge.

McCrystal knows also the meaning for political solutions.

If the french can win McCrystal as adviser, the success of the libyan uprising will have a better chance.

NeilMacCallister  04/07/2011 11:02 PM Report

Was our Secretary of Defense Robert Gates invited to be here tonight? ..I so appreciated his warning to our nation that any "No-Fly Zone" or other involvement in Libya was not going to be the clean-and-easy affair so many persons were saying it could be.

Thanks though, for having Mr. Gelb here to question our thinking that we can offer long-term future benefits to Libya by bombing temporary lines of demarcation into that nation's countryside.

We should instead be helping our Trilateral partner Japan recover from the tragic natural disasters which occurred there last month, and which have killed so many people and destroyed so many towns.

BENEZRAA  04/06/2011 02:06 PM Report

ATTN: KAREEM FAHIM:

Your reporting deserves great respect. Your voice reveals you as a young, idealistic man with eyes wide open before you. May you on the ground be Protected from Above. And despite the many reasons for pragmatic expectations to be realized before your eyes and create both personal and mass disillusionment, may there be a Miracle from Above, may Peace, Democracy, and Freedom break out across Libya and the larger Arab world; may the term "Arab Spring" prove to be real and not a joke in this most arid part of the world. May rivers of fresh water bless the deserts for years to come.

BENEZRAA  04/06/2011 01:55 PM Report

SOMETHING SERIOUS (CONT'D)

...is DE FACTO a mercenary army, as it is an all volunteer army of limited size and the participation is largely by persons, who entered the military for the material benefits. I do not mean to disparage the many, who enter the military for genuine reasons of service to the nation, especially those, who enter in time of war. We owe them more than we may imagine in terms of our own freedoms and lives. But, there are many, who enter the military solely for personal material gain, whose motives are mercenary, and who often move on from service to the Nation to service for profit in the increasing numbers of private mercenary armies to whom so much of the actual "dirty" work is farmed out by our official military. Failure to reinstate the universal draft will have more to do with the failure of democracy in the USA than even the financial meltdown. When people of all races, religions, and creeds come together in the military and responsible for each others lives; when people eat, sleep, dig trenches, march for miles, and learn with each other every day; when people know each other and their capabilities up close and personal and not based on TV and Film Stereotypes; then democracy has a real chance.

We have every reason to be concerned about the importance of human rights and democratic values in the world at large; however, we should be circumspect, that we do not overly project into the world at large our own stated or subliminal fears about our own real and pending losses with respect to actual democracy here at home.

BENEZRAA  04/06/2011 01:38 PM Report

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING SERIOUS...

I found the exchanges between Bernard-Henri Levy and Les Gelb to be most valuable in highlighting the arguments for and against involvement in Libya. Levy is the idealist and Gelb is the pragmatist. I favor Gelb's evaluation of Libya.

And like Gelb, I also hope and pray that Levy is actually correct.

Levy has played a key role in tipping Sarkozy and France to go with the "revolutionaries". We can only hope that the Libyan "revolution" does not turn out to be as disgusting and bloody as "Tale of Two Cities". Levy has been in Libya himself (his "boots on the ground") and was able to see, what he was permitted to see and whom he was permitted to see by the "revolutionaries". It should be obvious that he would not see the more serious players, skilled at lurking in the background, be they Qaddafi operatives, Al-Quaeda operatives, Muslim Brotherhood operatives, etc. As Les Gelb pointed out by analogy to Europe in the 1920's (shall we retroactively refer to this historical time as the "European Spring"?), it was the opening to "democracy" (and the example of "democracy" in the form of the plundering of the defeated Axis via the Versailles Treaty) that created the conditions that gave rise to fascism in the newly "democratized" Axis nations. Les Gelb sounds a well grounded alarm with respect to Libya and the likely meaning of "Arab Spring" throughout the Arab world.

The only missing element in this episode of the Charlie Rose Show is that there should have been background music courtesy of Mel Brooks from his musical "Springtime for Hitler".

We should all keep in mind that the world is always moving regardless of the degree to which the USA or Europe chooses to be directly involved in any particular geography. As the world abhors a vacuum, if the USA or Europe fail to act, others will, and if filling that vacuum, may conceivably act contrary to Western interests and values. Far from perfect, the West may still be the best the world has to offer in terms of values of opportunity and freedom.

Whatever plan(s) of action may have existed in terms of toppling Qaddafi or Mubarak or Assad prior to this apparently AD HOC "Arab Spring", such plans(s) necessarily have been scrapped, changed, or modified to meet the present realities -- also AD HOC. The likely Western priorities to meet these realities are Resource Security, Political Stability, and Democratic Values -- in that order.

Resource Security means (a) protection of oil resources and related financial tentacles, and (b) prevention of nuclear proliferation (remember, Qaddafi agreed to stand down his nuclear ambitions, and then reneged on that promise).

Political Stability means support and recognition of any willing partners capable of establishing and maintaining sustainable social order such that the West may profit by investing people and assets for a well-defined projected future of military, economic, and political relations with that new (or previous) government.

Democratic Values means that at least a face-saving appearance of respect for human rights must exist, if possible, so that the West may fulfill it's propaganda, even when faced with the inevitability of trading one form of dictatorship for another in regions where dictatorship is and has historically been both the means and the end.

Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that actually is a democratic nation and therefore the "Arab Spring" by definition, like apples and oranges, applies only to the Arab-Arab internecine issues, and does not apply to the Arab-Israeli Conflict -- except to the extent that the upheavals large and small in the Arab world may impact on the possibilities for peace, security, and continued economic development in Israel, as well as on the possibilities for successful peace to become established for the Arabs, currently quasi-independent, but, still under Israeli hegemony. The Israelis must be presently optimistic that peace will occur in the relatively near future, as the Israelis have just announced plans to build a unique air-and-sea port for the benefit of Gaza. We can only hope that the United Nations doesn't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by imminently voting to recognize a State of Palestine prematurely based on 1967 boundaries, as this would force a war of unpredictable proportions and prevent Israel and the Arabs from making peace of themselves.

With respect to Les Gelb's warnings about the possibility that democratic movements in the Arab world may open up the likelihood for succession by regimes as bad or worse than such as Qaddafi, that warning should be heralded here at home and not just with respect to the external world into which the USA currently brandishes the flag of democracy. Just as mercenary armies hallmark foreign dictatorships, the USA increasingly utilized mercenary armies to do it's dirty work, and it could be argued that even our standing official military is DE FACTO

BENEZRAA  04/06/2011 12:42 PM Report

FIRST, A LITTLE HUMOR...

ATTN: BEN WEDEMAN: As Bernard-Henri Levy pointed out, the Arab Spring in Libya is a spontaneous revolution of Doctors, Lawyers, and Teachers; so, is it any surprise that these "revolutionaries" know nothing about digging trenches? Whoever heard of Doctors, Lawyers, or Teachers lifting a shovel?

ATTN: LES GELB: Mr. Gelb, you would look really cool wearing a beret and an eye-patch!

ATTN: BERNARD-HENRY LEVY: What's with the hairdo? You look like the character Londo Mollari of the Sci-Fi series Babylon 5 -- not the most flattering character nor image!

JohnGelles  04/06/2011 07:18 AM Report

We are in the middle of the Arab Spring. The transcript of this show is not yet posted. From the comments so far, below, we may suspect that the Arab Street, once representing the poor, now includes many in the middle class, as well as many young students who want a job and free speech more than a "terrorist" reward in heaven (or hell) or Sharia law and religious fundamentalism. American interest in Arabian oil and the security of Israel persists, but its relationship to the Arab Street has changed.

Has America become the USSR -- the evil empire of the decade -- or will China and its crack down on human rights advocates hold on to that honor?

Zarkozy, Levy, Obama, Bush, Blair, Cameron, Charlie Rose and myself remain constant in our faith in America and its values in spite of the ruin brought to so many Americans by the export of jobs and industry and financial problems not yet resolved.

There are many tugs of war in progress. Will America lead the "West" and its freedom loving allies, or will some new form of police state capitalism ascend to greater power as more and more products are produced by cheaper labor than ours?

Frontline PBS TV told us all about Chinese human rights activist artist Ai Weiwei -- and now he;s under arrest in a China shaken up by the Arab Spring.

That should tell us something: namely the USA is NOT the EVIL-IST EMPIRE this decade.

I think I will have to wait until more of the dust has settled.

Meanwhile I suggest we read Wikipedia on Zarkozy and Bernard-Henri Lévy, as we wait for the transcript of this CR Show -- where Gelb appeared to be more with Gates than Hillary.

REMant reminds me of Noam Chomsky. Chomsky finds more fault with America than others whose abuse of human rights is far worse than ours. He normally admits this, but gives such nations a pass. REMant is no Chomsky -- REMant is an unknown in comparison with Noam. But they both seem blind to our potential to again become the nation where high wages for workers and freedom of thought for all will mark us as the last best hope for Humans on Earth.

Ricardo_Amaral  04/06/2011 04:29 AM Report

Today, I sent this information to a number of influential newspaper and magazine writers, and also to a number of television political and economic commentators who are interviewed on television on a regular basis.

*****

The mainstream media in the US is missing the boat one more time, here is the new reality for the United States if the US mainstream media wants to recognize it or not.

This material should be brought to the attention of the American people, to give Americans the opportunity to prepare themselves for the coming collapse of the US dollar and the entire international monetary system.

The United States has reached the end of the line, and the US dollar status as the main global reserve currency is the only thing that is slowing down the collapse of the US economy – a similar implosion and collapse to what happened to the Soviet Union not long ago.

Americans should be given a chance to prepare themselves for the coming collapse of the US economy and a similar transition period from Soviet Union to a surviving Russia after the implosion of the Soviet Empire.

Here is some material for you to check it out:

Gerald Celente -The First Great War of the 21st Century – March 3, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUX-1BI_pvQ

*****

I have been saying for a while on my articles and postings that the US economic and financial system it is collapsing just like the Soviet Union...Today, for the first time, I saw someone else writing on this subject besides myself. The Financial Times (UK) published an article “It's 1989, but we are the Russians.”

The final collapse of the US dollar

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s&threadid=216802&perpage=6&pagenumber=17

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Ricardo_Amaral  04/06/2011 03:01 AM Report

Here is what I also posted on Brazzil Magazine, the Elite Trader Economics Forum, on Facebook, and on other places on the web:

'War for Libyan oil planned long ago, no one cares about people' – April 2, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fUxVgxj0vc&feature=relmfu

***

Meet the Press – April 3, 2011

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42377219/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts/

The pillage of Libyan assets has already started by the United States and Europe:

On minute 15 and 40 seconds of the show Senator Durbin said that the United States has pillaged $ 30 billion dollars from the Libyan government.

On minute 21 and 40 seconds of the show Rep. Mike Rogers (Republican) said that the United States and Europe seized over $ 60 billion dollars from the Libyan government.

Brazil should open its eyes.

It's all about oil and natural resources, today it's Libya and the other nations of the Middle East and North Africa that are at play, but tomorrow it will be South America including Brazil.

Otherwise why the United States would be building seven military bases in Colombia, considering that the United States is already overstretched with its many wars, and we don't even have a war right now going on in South America?

*****

Next Stop Syria? - April 3, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/user/russiatoday?blend=1&ob=4#p/u/4/gaR5tv6LuEs

Balkanize and Conquer? - April 3, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/user/russiatoday?blend=1&ob=4#p/u/2/fc7KvJmxjVs

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Ricardo_Amaral  04/05/2011 09:09 PM Report

April 5, 2011

SouthAmerica: Reply to BlackBison

Wake up people.

It's Panic time....watch this video, since Gerald Celente knows what he is talking about.

Everybody in the United States should be watching this video – if they care about the future of what will be left of the old country.

The United States will move forward after the collapse in a similar fashion that Russia became one of the surviving pieces of the Soviet Union.

The handwriting is on the wall – and the process has already started and it is spinning out of control.

Gerald Celente -The First Great War of the 21st Century – April 3, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUX-1BI_pvQ

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Ricardo_Amaral  04/05/2011 09:09 PM Report

April 5, 2011

SouthAmerica: Reply to BlackBison

I am sorry to say, but you have not grasped as yet what is happening in economic and geopolitical terms.

If you have been reading my postings here on the Elite Trader Economics Forum, or on Brazzil magazine, or on the comments section of the Charlie Rose Show, on Facebook, and on other forums on the web – I have been saying for a while that the US economic and financial system is collapsing just like the Soviet Union – and the only reason the collapse and meltdown is moving in slow motion is because the US dollar has the special status of being the major foreign reserve currency – If wasn't for that the collapse of the US economy already would be in a very advanced stage just like the final days of the Soviet Union.

Today for the first time I saw someone else writing on this subject besides myself. The Financial Times (UK) published an article “It's 1989, but we are the Russians.”

Finally, the major financial newspapers started catching up and grasping what is underway.

Here is what the Financial Time article said:

“It’s 1989, but we are the Russians”

By Gideon Rachman

Financial Times (UK)

Published: April 4 2011

For the western world, the “Arab spring” threatens to be a classic case of good news and bad news. The good news is that this is the Arab 1989. The bad news is that we are the Soviet Union.

An exaggeration? Certainly. But there is enough truth in the analogy to explain why both the US and the European Union are uneasy about revolutions that – on one level – promote core western values, such as democracy and individual rights.

Much of the corrupt and autocratic order that is wobbling so badly in the Middle East was western-backed. The sponsorship was nowhere near as brutal or as overt as the Soviet repression of eastern Europe. And there have always been anti-western regimes, such as Iran and Syria, existing alongside the pro-western governments in the Middle East.

But there is no doubting that rulers such as Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia have been key western allies. In the classic formulation of the cold war, they were “our sons-of-bitches”. Or, as a writer in The Washington Times lamented last week: “Mr Mubarak may have been a tinpot dictator, but he supported America.”

Earlier this year, the Obama administration made it clear to Mr Mubarak that the US would not accept the violent suppression of the Egyptian uprising; just as in 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union, told the East German leadership that he would not support the murder of peaceful demonstrators in Leipzig. In both cases – Egypt and East Germany – the withdrawal of superpower support helped to tip the regimes over the edge, and to spread turmoil across a whole region.

Like the USSR in 1989, the US chose the honourable option in refusing to let its regional ally stay in power through force. But, like the Russians, the US now has to worry that it will sacrifice power in a traditional sphere of influence. American officials know that they risk losing friends and endangering economic and security interests in an emerging Middle East that they barely understand. After the fall of Mr Mubarak, a senior US official was heard to lament: “But we do everything with Egypt. Who do we work with now?”

The Europeans have a similar dilemma. The French and British eagerness to intervene in Libya reflected a desire to put themselves on the “right side of history” – and to bury an embarrassing record of co-operation with the old regimes in Tunisia and Libya. But backing the democratic uprisings in north Africa was a relatively easy call for the western powers, compared with the strategic and economic dilemmas thrown up in the Gulf, which is the most important oil-producing region in the world and a key base for al-Qaeda.

America has been noticeably reticent about supporting challenges to the ruling regimes in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen. It has called on the government of Bahrain to reform; but the US barely protested when Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain to help repress an uprising there.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, has said that his top priority in Yemen is the “war on terror” and praised Mr Saleh for his co-operation with America. Only after months of demonstrations, and bloodshed on the streets of Yemen, has the US apparently concluded that Mr Saleh is another old ally who will have to go.

Saudi Arabia itself represents the ultimate dilemma. More than 30 years ago, the US made clear that it would regard a threat to oil supplies from the Gulf as justification for military intervention. The “Carter doctrine”, announced in January 1980 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, proclaimed that: “An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.” A peaceful transition to a more liberal political system in Saudi Arabia would clearly not breach the Carter doctrine. But something more chaotic and violent that opened the way to increased influence for al-Qaeda or Iran? Who knows?

The fact that the Iranian government in Tehran and the leadership of al-Qaeda in Pakistan are also trying to influence events in the Arab world underlines that the US is not the only external actor with much at stake. The Iranians will see opportunities in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia – but will be very anxious about unrest at home and about the threat to the government of Syria, a key regional ally.

Iranian anxiety illustrates that the geopolitics of the Arab spring are still far from settled...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/202b56b0-5eea-11e0-a2d7-00144feab49a.html#axzz1IfcHW0jU

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Ricardo_Amaral  04/05/2011 09:06 PM Report

The final collapse of the US dollar it is just around the corner

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=216802&perpage=6&pagenumber=14

April 5, 2011

SouthAmerica: Reply to Emg

In the last 12 years I mentioned on various articles that eventually the countries of the world will be forced to choose a major currency for them to adopt based on each individual economic situation of each country.

Canada and Mexico will probably adopt the US dollar or “The New Dollar” as its new currency, because their economies are so integrated with the US economy.

After China grows up – we will have the “New Asian Currency” similar to the euro, and Brazil should be part of this “New Asian Currency”.

More countries will adopt the euro including Russia as the third major currency.

The Gulf currency also might be a choice for the countries of the Middle East.

And we might have even another option that has not appeared on the radar, or it's not obvious as yet.

This is what is going to happen very soon to the international monetary system after we have the final collapse of the US dollar.

We have reached the end of the line for the current international monetary system.

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Ricardo_Amaral  04/05/2011 09:04 PM Report

Here is what I posted today on Brazzil Magazine, the Elite Trader Economics Forum, on Facebook, and on other places on the web:

Ricardo: Ederson, if you read my articles going back to 2002 then you would know that I was against the United States attacking Iraq even before the United States made that terrible mistake.

And since 2002 I wrote many times over the years that Afghanistan is where former superpowers go to die a slow death.

Since before the US attacked Iraq I said on my articles it was all about pillaging the oil and the natural resources of these countries.

I grew up in Brazil and as a young man I came to the United States and during all that time I was told that the Soviet Union was a "Rogue Nation" and an "Evil Empire." But somewhere along the way the United States changed in a drastic way - and today we can say that the United States has turned itself into the "Rogue Nation" that everybody has to worry about.

The reality is: Something went drastically wrong with the United States, and that old good country of the past it does not exist anymore - today we have only the wreckage of the old country and a country in decline in every way.

Barack Obama was elected because people wanted "CHANGE" - He changed nothing, and he just became a member of the old club that had been wrecking this country for a long time.

A lot people that I know are really pissed with the government of the United States and all these scoundrels of Wall Street.

Most American politicians (with very few exceptions) are not worth even the food that they eat.

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Ricardo_Amaral  04/05/2011 09:01 PM Report

Here is what I posted on the Elite Trader Economics Forum.

My screen name on that forum is: SouthAmerica

March 27, 2011

SouthAmerica: It's amazing the number of people that have been watching this video about the coming collapse of the US dollar.

Porter Stansberry quoted me on this video. This was the first time that I heard of Porter Stansberry – but it turned out he is supposed to be a very well known figure to the investment community.

About 2 months ago, two friends of mine mentioned to me that they had seen the enclosed video, and that Bill Gross, Jim Rogers and I were quoted on this video regarding the US dollar. Over 10 million people have seen this video so far on various locations on the web, and I am quoted around the minute 38 to 41 into the video presentation. Here is one location where you can watch the video:

2) Porter Stansberry Research - The End of America – December 14, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI-B...=1&feature=fvwp

Cast TV: Tech Ticker – Interview with Porter Stansberry - Feb 16, 2011

"The End of America”: Porter Stansberry

http://www.casttv.com/ext/qe0stto

*****

December 14, 2010

Alex Jones & Porter Stansberry - The Economic Implosion of America is Here! Part 1 of 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTF5_TRn78c

Alex Jones & Porter Stansberry - The Economic Implosion of America is Here! Part 2 of 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq7nRqYAOqc&NR=1

Alex Jones & Porter Stansberry - The Economic Implosion of America is Here! Part 3 of 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bio...feature=related

Alex Jones & Porter Stansberry - The Economic Implosion of America is Here! Part 4 of 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZxm...feature=related

Alex Jones & Porter Stansberry - The Economic Implosion of America is Here! Part 5 of 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TbJ...feature=related

*****

January 4, 2011

2011 Death of the Dollar Porter Stansberry on The Alex Jones Show Part 1 of 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7PZ...feature=related

2011 Death of the Dollar Porter Stansberry on The Alex Jones Show Part 2 of 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmJjMnqinck

2011 Death of the Dollar Porter Stansberry on The Alex Jones Show Part 3 of 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0mx...feature=related

2011 Death of the Dollar Porter Stansberry on The Alex Jones Show Part 4 of 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rvEDqT9ee0

*****

February 23, 2011

The Alex Jones Show: Porter Stansberry, Lindsey Williams, James Corbett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NYIPWENfic

On February 23, 2011 Alex Jones interviewed various guests on his show, and he interviewed Porter Stansberry around the minute 50 to 1 hr and 34 minutes into this video presentation, and they show my name on the screen (Ricardo C. Amaral) at the point 1 hr and 23 minutes into the video discussion.

*****

Alex Jones says on this video that 10 million people saw the video “End of America” on Current TV.

Censored TV Ad Banned from Airwaves – March 25, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYc8...e=ytn%3Amptnews

*****

Alex Jones: His syndicated news/talk show The Alex Jones Show, based in Austin, Texas, airs via the Genesis Communication Network over 60 AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations across the United States and on the Internet.

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Ricardo_Amaral  04/05/2011 08:59 PM Report

Mr Levy's comments were driving me crazy the entire show - and Charlie did not ask the most important question to Mr. Levy: "During this past weekend we had carnage in the Ivory Coast civil war with thousands of innocent people being killed.

Why the French is not putting all their efforts on that civil war?

Because the main export item from the Ivory Coast is cocoa beans instead of oil.

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anne4444  04/05/2011 07:02 PM Report

"A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip"

robdverity  04/05/2011 06:30 PM Report

Geo W Obama has to go.

charlizecourriers  04/05/2011 03:47 PM Report

It won't be long before we discover that humanitarian wars are not free,either. This war appears, with the cooperation of the media, to be another war that is not really happening, much in the sense Baudrillard talked about the Gulf War. Then again, the Obama Doctrine appears to be mostly virtual.

REMant  04/05/2011 11:05 AM Report

I thought Mr Levy's comments, as last time, so much spin - the same sort of thing Tom Friedman, the president and his UN ambassadress must be thinking - tho I agree only with Gelb's criticism of the narrative. It is crazy like only a European intellectual's can be. I also take exception with their general idea of authoritarianism. For these are not just clashes of civilizations, but of civilization with community, urban with rural, mercantilism with free trade, empiricism with rationalism, women with men, evangelicals with arians, etc., as they always have been and certainly were in the two world wars against "fascism" and the Cold War. What I fear from all of this unrest, not only overseas, but also in this country with its so-called culture wars, is that our next will end up something more like the 30 Years and English Civil Wars. This is surely the way we're headed. It might also be mentioned that France has taken sides in Ivory Coast, too, in what is clearly not only a civil war, but one between Christians and Muslims, making similar grand statements about protecting civilians but killing them, themselves, tho in this one they've been forced to side with the Muslims.

Unlike Gelb and many others, I dislike, as I've said before, not only the attempt to make political hay out of these various uprisings when they were clearly instigated by our own shortcomings and pronouncements, but also what I see as the underhanded way they have been addressed, trying to keep our involvement out of sight and, of course, out of Walter Reed and Dover, Delaware. Laudable from a point-of-view, but the Arabs are quite right when they call us cowardly. I would submit that Levy has not had his "boots on the ground" nor perhaps, actually, have the insurgents, who, from what I've seen on TV, cut and run like a bunch of savages at the first sign of trouble.

If we thought Qaddafi, himself, posed an imminent danger to innocents, as we alleged, we should have said so forthrightly, and either sought a UN resolution to depose him specifically or done it ourselves in a declaration of war. If that were not sufficient to quell the fighting then we should have forthrightly taken on a police mission with or without backing. No one is going to object to a decent attempt to stop a fight, even if it is a crazy idea. Instead we tried to scare him to quit, and then attacked his forces from the air, yet only when the other side seemed to be losing, tho deliberately not targeting him, using the protection of civilians only as a cover. With UN legitimacy in hand, we went in there with the CIA and cruise missiles, and British and French, like a bunch of the kind of cowboys we've deplored in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, blasting away, in the hope that somehow this mess will all go away quickly and can be safely blamed on our enemy, while the president takes credit for heroism and decisiveness. It won't wash. The rationale for a dilatory course of action like this can only be fear of domestic political repercussions and plain cowardice. And it should be made clear that a straightforward doctrine like this should extend to all nations including Israel. If we cannot do it even-handedly and above board, then we shouldn't do it at all. I am not sure what Levy's attitude about bombing Israel would be, anymore than what it is now of Foucault.

I also, like I hope everyone else, certainly want to know about the rebels, but I also would like to point out that, courtesy of the media (with the exception of Christiane Amanpour) and the admin, they are virtually all we do know about. But we do know that eastern Libya provided a lot of the al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq, as Qaddafi said. We know, too, that the CIA was involved for weeks before it was disclosed, which might never have been except for that pilot's rescue. And we know that a guy who has spent decades in exile in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, Va suddenly turned up in Benghazi claiming to be their leader. That's the division spoken of by Mr Fahim. The Egyptians tho, I understand, are in fact involved now, but probably only out of self-interest like the others in this crusade.

I have little doubt that like Sadaam, Qaddafi will eventually be deposed, but I do not know if Libya will turn out any better than Iraq, and I doubt that Mr Obama, who we are told, grew up feeling oppressed in Indonesia, or Mr Sarkozy, who is part Hungarian and Jew, have any idea either.