No Fly Zone? Not Really

As you can see above, the other day John McCain dusted off the ole tweet machine. Strange bedfellows-- the old coot and the Let's-Drive-Israel-Into-The-Sea-Arab League! But he, Lieberman and, in lieu of M.I.A. Lindsay Graham, John Kerry, have been thundering for weeks for a No Fly Zone to stop Muammar Qaddafi and his brutal Beyoncé/Mariah Carey/Nelly Furtado/Usher-lovin' sons from slaughtering half the country's population while bombing the rest into subjugation. (Thank Heaven Usher didn't bring Justin Bieber along on that one!)

The papers are all abuzz that the Arab League has apparently been told to go ahead and call for the no fly zone, as the Qaddafis mop up the last of the resistance. And Washington is applauding. Less prominent is the news that it's all a fraud. Two resolutions passed, the second-- pushed by teetering Algeria, Syria and our pals the Saudis-- guaranteeing that the first would be toothless. Watch:



In other words, go ahead and declare a No Fly Zone. The Arab Street demands it, even if the ruling elites will never allow it. So... don't even think about enforcing it with anything more convincing than harsh rhetoric.

The New World Order-- sorry-- had to stop the pro-democracy movement somewhere but it got completely out of hand. It's even spread to Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana now! And the Qaddafis are willing to do the wet work. If Libya fell, Morocco and Algeria-- $5.00/gallon gasoline minimum-- would be sure to follow. The primitive, old fashioned tyrants in Libya and Yemen have what it takes and the embarrassed hope is that they'll staunch the flow and keep it from washing over The Kingdom.

Despite my contempt for the Republicans, I've pretty much disagreed with Obama on just about everything he's been up to. Here he's actually probably doing as well as anyone could possibly do. There are so many balls in the air-- even if reelection is primary-- that it probably takes an awful lot of concentration, especially considering the divergent interests that have to be taken into account, from the apocalyptic Israelis to the kleptocratic Saudis. The new Time has an interesting, if somewhat credulous, story on how Morocco's newish king is trying to navigate the mess in a way that will leave him on his throne and in control of his nation's wealth and resources. Still, he's get lots of advice from France and the U.S. to make sure to not come off like Qaddafi or Salah (in nerve-gased Yemen).

Looks like someone's been paying attention. After three weeks of nationwide protests, Morocco's King Mohammed VI unexpectedly went on television on March 9 to announce sweeping constitutional reforms. The changes, which include free parliamentary elections and a drastic reduction in the monarch's power, coincide closely with the demands of activists who have kept up pressure on the government since launching their first demonstrations on Feb. 20. Nevertheless, few among those championing reform in this north African country are persuaded that real change is at hand.

..."On the one hand, it's a 180-degree change," says Aboubakr Jamai, a journalist and founder of political website lakome.com. "It's acknowledgment that he has been leading Morocco down the wrong road. He's objectively recognized that what he has been doing was not democratic. But we have to remember that he's proposed these kinds of things before." Med Bouzidi, political scientist Ifrane's Al Akhawayn University, agrees. "Certainly it's a very positive step. But the devil is in the details." ... His palace elite, called the Makhzen, is much reviled for their behind-the-scenes influence, and Transparency International ranks Morocco as the 85th most corrupt nation in the world, below Saudi Arabia (50) and Tunisia (59).

Which is why many pro-democracy activists in Morocco are skeptical about the announced constitutional reforms. "There are some good points about the measures he announced," says Nizar Bennamate, 25, an activist and organizer of the February 20 movement. "But is the king really going to give up power? If so, why is he appointing the commission, for example, instead of allowing an elected constitutional assembly?"

Observers say they can't help but notice what was left out of the king's speech. "A lot of analysts have been commenting on the fact that there was no mention of corruption," says Haizam Amirah-Fernandez, senior analyst for the Mediterranean and Middle East at the Royal Elcano Institute, a Madrid-based think tank. "And bringing an end to the corruption that has resulted in so much inequality in Morocco is one of the principal demands of this mobilized sector of society. It's also one of the key causes and symptoms of bad government there."

..."The speech was about only partial change. And that's not enough. The Moroccan people want radical change."

By the way, Australia and the E.U. (and NATO)-- despite Britain and France-- aren't sending any planes to enforce any No Fly Zone and it's not likely Obama's going to get stampeded into it by idiots like McCain, Lieberman and Kerry.