American operation are ending in Iraq.
I am glad for the domestic cause of this country.
We could no longer in good conscience spend and shed more blood and treasure into what would certainly have turned into an interminable quagmire.
Then again, will there be a legacy of Jeffersonian democracy a la Mohammed? I doubt the efficacy of this experience.
Even President George W. Bush declared — Freedom cannot be given — it must be chosen. Will the Arab peoples choose freedom? Will they choose more collective acculturated socialism? Collectivism, as Economist Friedrich Hayek made clear, is just a crass case of slavery.
The Arab Spring would not have happened without the military prodding that knocked Saddam Hussein off his perched and pending from a gallows. Someone had to show the Arab peoples that their hateful leaders are human, all too human, and subject to the power of the people whom they claim to love and support.
Deceased dictator Moammar Gadhafi declared before the Pan-Arab Conference of 2008 — what will stop the Americans from knocking us from power, too? Only if the Arabs themselves take charge and take down their own tyrants. The Peoples of the Middle East have demonstrated capably throughout the year: they are not afraid to take down power. Can they muster the same diligence to rule themselves, though? That question has yet to be resolved.