Libya: Are we siding with al Qaida?

“Are we supporting our own future assassins?” said Phil Bronstein in the San Francisco Chronicle. In the early days of the Libyan uprising, the world scoffed when the delusional Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi blamed the protests in Libya’s streets on the terrorist group al Qaida. But it seems he may have been partially right. NATO’s commander, U.S. Adm. James Stavridis, this week admitted that there are “flickers” of al Qaida affiliation among the Libyan rebel groups we’re supporting with our air power. It isn’t just Libya, said Andrew McCarthy in NationalReview.com. From Egypt to Tunisia to Yemen, the so-called “populist” uprisings currently sweeping the Middle East are all partly driven by Islamic fundamentalists who are anything but “freedom-loving democrats.” When Arab dictators fall, hold your cheering: They will be replaced by sharia law, religious persecution of Christians, and open hatred of America and Israel. “The ‘Arab Spring’ is actually the Islamist Spring.”

“Westerners should hold their nerve and trust democracy,” said The Economist in an editorial. The Middle East is an Islamic region, and any truly democratic system of government that emerges will, inevitably, have an Islamic flavor to it. “But Islamic does not mean Islamist.” Extremist groups such as al Qaida are “widely hated” across the region, which is precisely why Qaddafi invoked its name to discredit the protests. For the record, said Stephen Schwartz in WeeklyStandard​.com, the red, black, and green flag of the Libyan rebels harks back to a tolerant, modernizing strain of Islam that long predates al Qaida. Those risking their lives for freedom are not inspired by Osama bin Laden but by the example of Egypt and Tunisia, and the “contagious, heady lesson that autocrats can be overthrown.”

Then why is al Qaida celebrating? said The Washington Times. In the latest issue of Inspire, al Qaida’s English-language magazine, Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born jihadist, hails the Arab uprisings as “a great leap forward for the mujahideen.” It’s hard to disagree with him. Figures like Qaddafi and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak may have been cruel tyrants, but they were also Western-leaning pragmatists who “kept a lid on violent extremists.” With the dictators overthrown, radical groups like al Qaida will be able to flourish unchecked. So remind me again—why are we helping the rebels in Libya? said Roger Simon in Politico.com. Shouldn’t we at least “know for whom we are fighting before we fight for them?”

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