Can We Drop The Charade That This President Acts On Principle and Not Politics?

[no limit]

With the action Obama has taken in Libya the argument once again is that this administration did what it did as a matter of principle. That principle apparently being that you cut heating assistance for poor families here in the states while sending our fighter jets and battle ships thousands of miles away at a cost of billions of dollars with absolutely no clear objective and no end-game.

It's great that Obama has a sudden disgust for brutal dictators (in some cases) because that wasn't the case just a year ago:

The administration has submitted a proposed budget for fiscal 2011 that included military assistance increases for Bahrain, Libya, Morocco, Oman and Yemen.

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Under the budget proposed by the State Department, U.S. military aid to Bahrain would increase from $8 million in fiscal 2009 to $19.5 million next year, Middle East Newsline reported.

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U.S. military aid to Yemen would increase from $12.5 million in 2010 to $35 million in 2011. Officials said Yemen would receive a range of helicopters as well as special operations forces training.

Libya would see an increase in U.S. military assistance from $150,000 to $250,000 in 2011. Officials said the rise would enable U.S. military training of Libyan forces.

A year ago we didn't see a problem with arming these brutal dictators. Now that it's not popular to do so we suddenly have a problem with them.

It is also curious that this administration is coming out so strongly against Gaddafi in Libya while refusing to do so in cases such as Bahrain where a brutal dictator lives surrounded by exotic riches on the backs of its citizens. One of the reasons for this must be Saudi Arabia and it's support for the Bahrain dictatorship.

And although Saudi Arabia has protests of its own as other middle eastern countries are having the Saudi royal family continues to be one of our strongest allies. When it comes to selling them weapons and helping them develop their military we are eager to do so. Yet Saudi Arabia has no problems with shooting at protesters, arresting people that speak out against its government, and it has no problems committing such atrocities as hanging gay people and stoning rape victims.

So the argument that what Obama is doing is a matter of principle and not a matter of politics simply doesn't pass the smell test. The fact that Gaddafi and the Saudi royal family http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1165858/Im-king-kings-Gaddafi-storms-Arab-summit-labels-Saudi-king-British-product.html">have had contempt for each other going back many years including http://articles.cnn.com/2004-06-10/world/libya.saudi_1_libyan-intelligence-officer-abdel-rahman-shalqam-assassination-plot/2?_s=PM:WORLD">allegations that in 2004 Gaddafi tried to assasinate the Saudi king is I'm sure also no accident.

The truth seems to be that we have picked sides in this fight, and it has nothing to do with principle. It has everything to do with protecting the interests of Saudi Arabia while providing political cover for the Obama administration here at home from republican attacks. Saudi Arabia would love nothing more than to have Gaddafi overthrown and Obama knows that if Gaddafi won this fight Obama would be destroyed here at home by republicans just in time for the 2012 elections. This kills two birds with one stone, protect Saudi interests while making republicans look like petty idiots (didn't think you needed to go to war to do that).