I am Libya, and so can you.

So Bizzo has thrown down the gauntlet to justify myself after days of inane and incoherent babbling about why I like the Libyan rebels, despite all apparent reason. Don't get me wrong; there are a lot of very rational arguments for why intervening in general, and, further, in Libya is problematic. I'm sure Bizzo will bore you with many of them, so let me take this opportunity to dismiss and discredit them all beforehand...categorically. There. Done. Because it comes down to this: Fuck all of the complexity. The world is complex. I like the rebels and you should to...and here’s why:  

While it is messy in the short term, supporting what these rebels stand for represents our only long-term solution to the so-called "War on Terrorism." To support this, I'm not going to fight the specifics of each reason why it is not clean and convenient to intervene in Libya. Instead, I’ll give you a reason why we should, and let Bizzo reply to that. I would argue that, no matter the upfront complexity, the long-term benefit outweighs the short-term pain. Simply put: their cause is our cause. It boils down to this: Al Qaeda (AQ): what it represents and how best to fight it.

I would first argue that, in this day, Islamic radicalism represents a major challenge for US interests—perhaps our major near-term, geo-strategic challenge. While it is not, and will never be, an existential threat to this country, AQ and its ilk represent a severe psychological and economic threat. Furthermore, it is the only realistic way that Americans will be attacked at home and abroad--short of nuclear war. Because of this fact, and the link to our need for oil, AQ is a major strategic problem.

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So, how to combat AQ? Many people's knee jerk reaction is to understand this fight in military terms: “bomb this, invade that.” In some cases, military action is necessary, but it always needs to take into account the true nature of this struggle, and further its resolution. I would put to you that this is an ideological conflict. This is a key point that has been lost in the debate, and lost in our current military efforts over the last decade. It is in danger of being lost again when it comes to what to do with Libya.

To look at this, one must understand what Al Qaeda represents. I would argue that AQ is not a singular malevolent organization. Rather it is the manifestation of Arab and Muslim discontent, frustration and repression. It is spawned by decades of cultural decline, imperialism and subjugation of people in the Middle East and broader Muslim world. While it is true that Bin Laden has his own political motives for his actions, people STILL support him. That support is driven by something. Without popular support, he and the rest of his core group are little more than a bunch of conspiracy theorists in a cave. With increased popular support among the world's 1.8billion Muslims, they become a strategic threat.

So if popular support is key to combatting AQ, how does one undermine support for it and other radical Islamic organizations? To understand this, one must look at why some societies are stable and peaceful and others are unstable and violent--breeding grounds for terrorism. I would argue that the key lies in the ability of the state to meet the needs of its people.

The West and other stable societies provide outlets for citizens when they are discontented, which deflect popular anger away from the state as a whole, and put the onus on the individual to change his or her own circumstances. In the West, if you are unhappy, you can rant in a newspaper article, organize a petition or a protest. You can have your complaint heard in a series of courts. Every so often, you can vote to throw the bums out of office. If you want more money and success, you can go to school, find a better job or start your own business. If neither of these options satisfies your needs, you can turn to the church of your choice, and seek spiritual solace. In the US in particular, you can even move far away from everyone, and do your own thing. These factors, these "pressure release valves," help keep the society stable and peaceful by providing outlets for discontent.

It is precisely the lack of these sort of societal "pressure releases," especially in the Muslim world, which has led to a situation where people have nowhere to turn to express their anger. Lets take a look at your token Middle Eastern nation: When it comes down to it, the average Muslim guy is really just like the average guy in the West. He doesn't start out in life with the goal of blowing himself up. He just wants a nice happy life. He wants a job, a home, a family, food and water, a means to improve his lot. But what happens if the world sticks it to him? 

If you are an average young Muslim guy, where can you go to redress your grievances? Maybe you don't have the resources to move somewhere else. Even if you could, what country would take you? You can’t get a job; those are for the politically or tribally connected. You can’t get help from the state. They are corrupt. Maybe they’ll even arrest you for daring to try. You can’t organize a protest. They’ll shoot you. You can’t go to court. The state or the connected dictate the outcome. You can’t vote your leaders out. They’ve been there for 40 years, and there’s a reason why. 

So where do you turn? In many of these countries, the only avenue for social venting became the mosque. That average Muslim guy may feel that, while the state may control everything, they can’t control God. Right? So it is to God he turns. But he’d be mistaken. The state long ago saw the threat and installed their imams. Suddenly even “God” is not an option. But, you know what? There are those shady guys in the corner with the "true" Islam...They tell him what he wants to hear and they tell him who to blame. They’ll let him in on the vast Western-Zionist-Dictator conspiracy that is keeping him down. Maybe this is the answer he’s been seeking! Through them he can exercise his anger. He’s been restricted and repressed, beaten and shot at. Maybe he has had everything he loves taken away from him, for reasons he can’t understand, by people he doesn’t know. Well then what's left in life but to blow somebody up? This dynamic I would argue is the ultimate source of radicalism, terrorism and support for Al Qaeda.

In the West, if we want to combat this resultant radicalism, we need to focus our interventions on the goal of providing societies with more ways to vent their endemic anger. In so doing, the anger of the man on the street will turn to individual responsibility. If he dislikes his station in life, he'll go to school, start a business, vote for whom he likes, and live the happy, peaceful life he desires for him and his family. Maybe he won’t get there. Maybe it is just too far and there are too many barriers...but maybe he wont be angry enough to go to those guys in the dark corner of the mosque. From and American perspective, that's all we really need to win. 

So this brings us to Libya. Why should we get involved? I argue that we should get involved, not because of who or where the rebels ARE, but for what they REPRESENT. Remember dear reader how this all got started in Tunisia. One guy couldn't get a lousy permit for his fruit cart without bribing someone. This was a college graduate. He couldn't find a job, and then, he couldn't even sell fruit on the street to feed his family. We're all lucky he didn't seek out Al Qaeda. He could have. He could have gone to Afghanistan to kill those bastards supporting his hated dictator. Strap on a vest and blow himself up. Many have before him. Instead, he just set himself on fire and thanks be to God for that. This would just be an individual and inexplicable tragedy in a society with options, but his act tapped into something deeper in the Muslim world. It tapped into the very frustration I just described above. People have lost their fear, and they haven’t embraced Al Qaeda. This is a crucial point. They are trying to change their lot. Now with revolutions started in many countries. We come to Libya....

In Libya, the only difference from Tunisia is that the dictator chose to go down shooting. The people rising against him are driven by this desire for change. Now, we in the West have a chance to help them make the society that they, and we, want to see. We have a chance to change our image in the Middle East. We have this opportunity, because, over the course of all these revolutions, guess who hasn't said anything: yep Al Qaeda. These uprising have undermined their whole argument. They had argued that through them, and their warped view of an Islamic state, laid the only route to change. Their silence and inaction should tell you all you need to know to support these rebels to the hilt. Thus, it isn't about the specifics of the Libyan rebels and Libya, in general. This isn’t about who they are, it is about what they represent. People will say, well why don't we intervene elsewhere against injustice and repression? I would say, we should. The more the better. That may not mean military action in every case, but we should help people open up their societies. In the long run, it is the only way we will ever see the end of "The War on Terrorism."