It has taken a long time but someone has finally blamed Al-queda for the violent uprisings in Libya. The Libyan "Leader" himself says it is Al-queda who is causing all the trouble. Normally it is the US and possibly Israel who get blamed for these types of problems. If you can overlook the small fact that the Libyan leader is currently killing all the protesters he can find you can almost give him an attaboy.
The thing that has bothered me most about our "War on Terror" is the total lack of people who are willing to place any blame on Al-queda itself and instead save all their vitriol for the people trying to fight Al-queda. I don't subscribe to the Bush policy of "You are either with us or against us" argument but it would be nice for those who are busy criticizing the US leaders and policies to at least make an token attempt to put some of the responsibility on the terrorists whose actions have created the need for the current US policies.
In the past it was advertised that there would be no negotiating with terrorists because it validates the terrorists violence and if you start negotiating that will only legitimize and increase the chance of creating more terrorist actions in the future. This policy is similiar to the way law enforcement agencies do not pay ransoms to kidnappers because if they did the kidnappers would continue their actions to enhance thier revenue stream. (In certain cases ransom has been paid either by the family or other 3rd parties so the law enforcers can at least claim they did not violate their official policy.) The problem today with terrorism is that from the very begining their have been a substantial amount of people who justify the terrorists actions by placing blame on the US or other international governments that have taken up arms.
On 9/11 the towers were still smoking when people started validating the terrorist actions by blaming US policy. As long as this type of behavior continues terrorism will continue. If the international community could form an united front against terrorism the problem could be dealt with. Instead countries have quietly mouthed standard condemnations and then used the terrorist actions to challenge US policy instead of condeming the terrorists actions. Those who abhore violence and warfare the most are the ones who are strengthing the terrorists hand by only critizing those who are actually fighting the terrorists. It is realpolitic gone amok and assures that the violence will continue into the future.
If the international community could have agreed unanimously that Sadam Hussien needed to be removed there would never have been a reason to invade Iraq a second time. There were countries who approved the UN declarations but when they were violated they did not have the will to enforce their own resolutions. By being unwilling to enforce their resolutions they make all of their resolutions worthless and we might as well as disband the UN or at least move it somewhere beside New York.Those people calling the the Iraq war "illegal" are idiots. Iraq signed a surrender after the first war and did not meet the terms of that surrender. That fact alone makes the war more than "legal". By not enforcing the surrender terms what use are they in the first place? The countries who fought hardest against the war were also the ones that gave Sadaam some hope that he could continue his actions without any fear or consequences. I think what upset people most was the fact that Bush had the will to basically tell the UN to get bent and proceeded with his actions. Bush did the one thing that all of the political leaders in the world hate to do and that is he made a firm and unequivical decision based on what he thought was right instead of being overly concerned with the political hystaria that followed. His decision, like any decision, could be right or it could be wrong but he still had the guts to make it. There were also those countries who were busy taking kickbacks on the Iraqi oil program that was originally designed to funnel money to the Iraqi civilians. And those countries working on oil contracts with the Iraqi government certainly did not want a war to interfere with their operations. It has always annoyed me when people claim the US was in the war for oil when in fact the US does not import any oil from Iraq and there are no US corporations that were awarded oil contracts in Iraq either before or after the war. All of those contracts went to European countries.
The same thing is happening today in Iran. The sanctions against Iran are causing internal problems and might acheive their intended results but there are some countries who violate the sanctions and provide Iran with those items and services being denied in the sanctions. Just a small group of dissenting countries are enough to convince the Iranian leaders that the UN sanctions can not hurt them and they can continue their current policies regardless. All the authoritive leaders who are currently trashing international norms using violence or warfare only need a small sliver of hope that not everyone is against them and this hope will empower them until the very end.
Unless Earth gets invaded by aliens I seriously doubt that the international community would ever see a reason to truely work together to solve some of our problems.
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