Lybia WAS NOT a Democracy Movement

And the President has egg on his face again. We were told last week when Mohammar Quadaffi was killed by NATO actions, once again, that this was a great victory for Obama and that Barack had made the world safer and that other nations would love us, all hail the Anointed One (dripping with sarcasm).

Of course, it did not take a Harvard degree to figure out what was going on...or at least to be skeptical.   I did not speak on Lybia but I did write on Egypt, and here's an excerpt from my article on February 2, 2011:

 Liberals want us to believe that this is absolutely, without a doubt, a Democracy movement. I hope they're right. But hoping and expecting are two different things. I know my history far too well to assume that this will go in the correct direction (see Iran). As I've said above, I do recognize that Egypt is not required to use an American-style Representative Republic.

 HOWEVER, the fundamental Human Rights of all individuals must be respected. Therefore, even free people do not have the right to vote other people's rights away. It was wrong when Americans voted to keep blacks in slavery. It was wrong when Americans voted to keep blacks segregated. That's why the Constitution can be and has been amended and the Judicial Branch has the ability to strike down laws which take away other people's fundamental rights. (For example, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education struck down Plessey v. Ferguson – a ruling which legalized segregation). (1)

Now here we are, and Lybia's  chairman of the Lybian National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdul-Jalil stating that the basis of the new law of Lybia will be Sharia Law, including reinstituting the right of men to have up to four wives at once and also removing all laws on the books that go against Sharia. (2)  It is reasonable to suspect that this would include beefing up penalties that aren't in line with the Sharia requirements, including using penalties like amputation of hands for theft, the death penalty for adultery and the death penalty for apostasy (leaving Islam). (3) 

Included in these penalties are fundamental breeches of a person's fundamental human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Adultery is, by modern standards and in a legal sense, a breech of the marriage contract and not a crime.  (As a Christian I cannot say it is acceptable, however, there is a difference between legal penalties on Earth and answering to God for one's sin on the Last Day.)  Amputation of a limb for theft is a punishment that I believe most would consider Cruel and Unsual Punishment and banned by the Eight Amendment to our Constitution and similarly banned by other civilized nations.  Killing people for leaving Islam is both breeching the right to Religious Freedom as laid out by the First Amendment to the Constitution and, in a more general sense, is a breech of each individual's right to Liberty..

So, my friends, the very concerns that I had about the so-called Arab Spring are coming to fruition.  Is the world "safer" without Quadaffi?  Maybe not.  It seems we may well have traded the Devil We Know and who is not a threat to us for the Devil We Don't Know and may well become a threat.  For the people of Libya, I'd say the oppression of Sharia will be just as bad as the opression of Quadaffi. 

To those of you who believe this is just a matter of Lybian self-determination, I'd like to remind you what I said back in February regarding Egypt:

You see, the framers simply ASSUMED the fundamental human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING has those rights. They were given to them by nature's God. People do not have the right to abridge other individual’s rights, EVEN IN A FREE ELECTION! (1)

People do not have the right to vote away other people's rights.  Period.  Has our nation been perfect to this standard from the beginning?  Heck no we haven't.  But our Constitution provides for the correction of those mistakes, like the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery and Brown v. Board of Education which overturned segregation.  Sharia has no such protections.

So now, Mr. President, at best you've spent our military might and treasure to trade out the Devil We Know for the Devil We Don't Know.  Congratulations.  At best you've left America, and Lybia, no less safe. At worst...well, you figure it out.

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(1) Egyptian Unrest: Sign of Democracy in Middle East?

(2) Libya's liberation: interim ruler unveils more radical than expected plans for Islamic law

(3) Wikipedia: Sharia - Penalties