America Distracted Again

If you watch television, read the newspapers or search the internet you are bombarded by stories about the conflict in Libya.  Even the disaster in Japan has now been pushed off to the side.  Chief among these stories is the ongoing debate about America’s military intervention in another foreign country.  There is little in the way of support for the President’s decision to order US military assets into the conflict.  And even those who support the decision think he waited too long to act.  But while the debate rages on about all things Libya there are two important stories that have flown under the media radar.

Those that support our intervention in Libya point out that the Arab League has signed off on our use of military force.  It is that “authorization” that has legitimized our attacking Libya and differentiates the Libyan situation from the oppression and violence currently being imposed by the governments in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and Iran to name a few.  While the Arab League has been willing to offer their approval of military action they have thus far been unwilling to get their hands dirty.  Only Qatar has stepped up to provide actual military assets.  Once again, the American taxpayers are footing the bill to end oppression in the Middle East while neighboring Arab states sit on their hands.  This glaring disparity has gone virtually un-reported by the press.

The other item that is noticeably absent from today’s reporting is jobs.  Roughly 15% of Americans are either unemployed, underemployed or have stopped looking for a job.  Yet this huge problem and our governments’ futile efforts to improve the situation are nowhere to be found in the press.  American families are still struggling but yet our leaders and those that cover them are distracted by our involvement in another war that we cannot afford.  No doubt our elected leaders are happy to have the nation focusing in another direction.  It distracts the voters from realizing that they have not done one thing to improve the economic plight of the folks who elected them to do just that.

Once again we are distracted from our problems at home while we rush to assume our place as the world’s policeman.  I’m sure the Arab League is most appreciative.