Thoughts on Libya

I was watching the news along with many others about the events in Libya over the past months. For those that weren't, here is a brief refresher: An angry street vendor in Tunisia lights himself on fire. Most Tunisians feel the same way, demonstrate and protest, and the dictatorship style government is overthrown. The same thing happens in Egypt. Tunisia is West of Libya and Egypt is East of Libya. Libyans begin to demonstrate and protest to overthrow the government. As far as we can tell, they, along with Egyptians and Tunisians, want a greater say in the government. As of now, huge protests are also going on in Yemen and Bahrain, which may also overthrow their non-democratic governments. Many neigboring countries in the middle east have also had protests, some of which may result in more overthrown governments. Here's a map: Map from ocw.nd.edu
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In Libya, unlike Tunisia and Egypt, the dictator was ok with killing any and all protesters. The protests and demonstrations went from angry and peaceful to angry and violent as protesting individuals were jailed, killed, etc. An apparent majority of the people, including a sizable chunk of the military, sided against Qaddafi, the "brother" leader. They got armed, and started moving towards Tripoli, the capital, and Qaddafi's base of power.
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Qaddafi kept all his best military equipment, especially the new stuff he'd gotten in the past 8 years or so after major sanctions were ended, in Tripoli, in the hands of the most loyal part of the army. As far as I can tell, there are about 3 tribes that are loyal to Qaddafi, as well as mercenaries and those that believe what they see on state run TV, and those that are too afraid to rebel. Since the most loyal group had the best weapons, they opened up a can on the rebel military groups. These rebel military groups, made up of defected military and people wanting more freedoms for themselves, stopped advancing and started retreating or being killed, or both. Qaddafi's men followed them and began to retake cities.
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The United States, along with France and Britain, and with grudging support from Arabic and African neighbors, decided to put a stop to Qaddafi's offensive. So it did. As of right now, the tides have turned again, and the rebel forces are advancing towards Tripoli for the second time.
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There are some questions that Americans might have about our support for the rebels.
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"Don't they (Libyans, Arabs, etc.) hate us?" I think the answer to this question is yes. At least as a whole. There is a small percentage that doesn't. Just because a lot of them hate us doesn't mean the first thing they'll do is start thinking of ways to kill us once their form of government has changed. I think "Death to America" is probably a ways down the list, after things like food, jobs, a voice in government, etc.
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"All this support won't end Qaddafi's rule!" It's possible that Qaddafi could continue to have power in Tripoli for some time to come. This isn't the worst possible outcome, but it is a bad one. Hopefully the rebels will be able to take Tripoli, and then reunite the government with the people, and then vote on their government...
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"What's worse than Qaddafi staying in power in Tripoli?" I think the worst possible outcome would be if another kind of extremist comes to power after Qaddafi goes, and they don't get democracy, and then women and minority groups are even worse off. I don't think the idea that 'Islamic extremists will take over' is the most probable outcome of all of this. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but I think there is a large group that sees extremism as, well, extreme.
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"Why should the US put lives and money on the line for Libya?" In my opinion, it's because 1) innocent (pro-democracy) lives will be saved, 2) we know democracy is good, and it is better for Libya than what they have, 3) once upon a time it was the US that was rebelling, and we needed and got help from France to stave off England. We can help others in the same way, can't we?, 4) Showing that the US and the international community won't put up with murdering peaceful protestors will dissuade other area governments from using the same tactics, or at least it will make them do it less. Hopefully. 5) This isn't Vietnam. It isn't Somalia. It isn't Iraq, or Afghanistan. If we can nudge Libya back to they Egypt and Tunisia path, with a more peaceful transition of governments, we won't need to be there for years.
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The United States of America was, and still is, the flagship of democracy. Since its founding, the democratic ideal, imperfect as it is, has been adopted by more than half of the planet to some degree or another. It is possible that democracy won't be the final outcome in Libya. These things can never be completely foreseen. But there is a chance that democracy will prevail without Qaddafi. With Qaddafi, the chance is zero. Qaddafi was a threat only because of far superior firepower. This firepower is the result of Western democratic research and development. It would be totally sick and wrong if Qaddafi were allowed to kill pro-democracy citizens of Libya with weapons that result from technology that comes from the world's foremost democracies.