The Washington Post (and others) today are highlighting this photo above, taken Oct.2010 - noting that African-Arab leaders (front row) like Tunisia's Ben-Ali and Egypt's Mubarak, all smiles with Gaddhafi and embattled Yemen leader Saleh, are smiling no more today.
Building on resident-led revolutions across these nations, rebels in Libya were aided enormously by NATO air strikes (especially in the last few weeks and days), arms supplies and troops on the ground to train and coordinate rebels.
President Obama has been ridiculed for his policies directing military actions in Libya - but the real possibility of transforming Libya into a more democratic nation is on the rise.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich writes of his deep concerns that the U.S. and it's allies in NATO have been making more war at an ever-rising cost too:
"The leading donor nations of NATO – the US, France and Great Britain – have been free to prosecute war under the cloak of this faceless, bureaucratic, alphabet security agency, now multinational war machine, which can violate UN resolutions and kill innocent civilians with impunity. War crimes trials are only for losers. The prospective conquerors, the western powers and their rebel proxies, will then expect to be able to assert control over Libya's vast oil and natural gas reserves."
More battles and many more changes are likely across the region - but the results? Time will tell.
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