Disarm, don't arm, the O-zone

Submitted by Jan B. (United States), Mar 10, 2011 at 16:17

Without mentioning Libya's oil umbilical cord to Europe and other places, any argument for or against involvement may be superficial. The U.S. and European allies could have more easily stopped Sudan's slaughter of non-Muslims by its camel-backed sword-swinging hoards. The same oil bias is evident in other hot spots, not just the ones where Islamists are at war with democracy supporters or simply Christian minorities or Israel, where the banners of human rights still wave.

The recent article by Stratfor gives plenty of examples of how weapons eventually end up being used against Western countries or in local civil wars. And giving a temporary leaderless "opposition" groups weapons which will later be used against democratic nations or resold to regional Jihadists, Latin American depots, drug cartel kings, etc. could be worse. What will prevent Libya from becoming another Somalia, this one with easy access to the Mediterranean Sea, but with more powerful Western weapons? And the UN will only make it worse: it placed Libya at the head of its Human Rights Council, and is now considering replacing it with Syria!

Just looking at the entire Muslim region, the other alternative to "no-fly" zones would be "no-buy" zones, where no countries should ever sell weapons to Muslim countries with despotic rulers except where there is a clear and present danger that the country will be or was invaded by a neighbor, as in Kuwait, or to democracies like Israel. Obviously, this isn't likely to happen, since the U.S. is unconcerned at being the leading arms supplier to Mexico's drug cartels. How soon before our military are fighting against U.S. drug terrorists with Texas-bought weapons?

Wars are expensive, probably more expensive in the long run than unemployment in the arms-export and gas-guzzler industries Since we can't prevent wars in our own border drug zones, we should reconsider helping unknowable, quickly changeable, "opposition" movements from fighting civil wars in far-off (oil) O-zones.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".