dle East in his first year in office, with the rise of Islamist governments and the widening repercussions of civil revolt. After Obama helped topple Moammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011, many in the region wondered when he would emerge again to help shape the course of the tumultuous Arab Spring, which has re

dle East in his first year in office, with the rise of Islamist governments and the widening repercussions of civil revolt. After Obama helped topple Moammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011, many in the region wondered when he would emerge again to help shape the course of the tumultuous Arab Spring, which has re

porting on relatively optimistic economic prospects. Kissinger is right that in the end NATO's operations in Libya looked like an effort to remove Moammar Gaddafi from office, not because NATO planes took out command-and- control facilities in Tripoli from which Gaddafi and his generals were ordering

ondemnation. This, despite the fact that the stakes in Syria are higher, from a strategic standpoint, than in Libya. By the time NATO acted against Moammar Kadafi, he was an isolated despot who had given up sponsoring terrorism and building weapons of mass destruction. Not so with Bashar Assad: His re

e East in his first year in office, with t=e rise of Islamist governments and the widening repercussions of civil rev=lt. After Obama helped topple Moammar Gaddafichttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- =yn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030905672.html> in Libya in 2011, many=in the region wondered when he