To be or not to be that is Libya

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to.

Over five hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s Hamlet remarked, "To be or not to be that is the question." Where there may be certainty of war when we are attacked, there should be much debate when the prospect is arbitrary and uncertain. Hopefully, the United Nations will resolve the predicament, but that is uncertain at best. Every army needs weapons and leadership and that may be lacking. Too many American Presidents from Harry Truman, LBJ, and George W Bush have discovered the awful truth, that it is far easier to get into war than extract us from it.

The problem with Libyan criticism is one need to be certain of their facts. On one hand, to not intervene in Libya could mean certain death for a democratic movement and many Libyans, and that would be wrong. On the other hand, to intervene, we could become mired in another war with no real hope of success. Time will determine whether, as LBJ once said before invention in Vietnam," It was like being in a thunderstorm walking on a Texas highway with no where to go and no where to hide."

Perhaps Johnson, himself, best summed up his involvement in the Vietnam War as President: “I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved — the Great Society - in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs.... But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.

LBJ Goes to War 1964—1968
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson

China says Middle East should solve problems itself. However painful this may sound, ultimately this is the correct approach for a lasting peace in the Middle East. Too often, we ignore a massive tradition of historical advancement and think WE ALONE CAN SOLVE THE PROBLEM. Where is the Arab League? There is at least 7000 years of civilization in the Middle East. It is time for this region to solve its own problems.