It's sad what's going on in Libya

It's a pity that Gadafi is crazy. Not only is he doing his own country a great disservice but he's helping despots still in place in the middle-east to be overconfident that all that is required to maintain their position is to bully and kill their own people with brute force.

Headlines this morning are about snipers aiming at children in Libya. How horrible is that? To actually target CHILDREN. Our future, our youth, our innocence. Children should never be stuck in the middle of that. 

Yes we know Gadafi is crazy and the spin he brings to everything he says is so full of lies and deceipt. He would like us to believe that he's just a dumb crazy Arab and that Libya is a poor backwards country stuck in the middle ages, who without him will turn into a chaotic mess like Somalia. That he's the reason his country is under control!?!?!?!

Well it's nothing to be proud of, to kill your own people and rule in such a way that all dissent is killed?  I read an inspiring article by Najla Abdurrahman yesterday.  One of the points she makes is that the people of  Libya are not as backwards and ignorant as Gadafi tries to make them out to be. Western scholars have been arguing that in most Arab countries, the uprisings will eventually bring about Muslim extremists in power. That these poor uneducated people cannot possibly know what to do with democracy. 

I beg to differ. The governments that end up in place may not be the type of allies the West is looking for but if they do the will of the people in the country who chose them, then who are we to judge their choices?  I mean it's not like George "Dubya" Bush was a great leader for the Americans but the rest of the world didn't invade the US to get rid of him, although many probably gave it thought.  I can't say I'm proud to have Harper as a leader for Canada, but I certainly wouldn't want other countries to take him down.  It's up to the people to get rid of him democratically. 

The people of all these Arab countries in turmoil are entitled to self-determination.  

As this is Friday, I wish all those out protesting for change in their respective countries that their voice is heard. I believe there are marches today in Syria, Yemen, Oman, & Egypt. In Jordan a man put himself on fire, much like the man in Tunisia who's same act was the catalyst for all the unrest in the Middle-East.