I read with some pleasure (no I will not grieve for him) that Moammar Gadhafi was killed today, more or less ending the War in Libya when coupled with the news of Sirte’s capture. With any uncertainty about his whereabouts finally gone, the National Transitional Council can finally begin the real work of rebuilding the country.

What shape that rebuilding takes remains to be seen. Will Libya be more like Tunisia, where the transition to democracy has been made with relative ease, or like Egypt, which still remains under military rule months after their dictator was ushered out? I think some sort of democracy will take hold. It’s notable that in the case of Libya some kind of plan was formulated to transition power to a new, civilian government, where in Egypt there was none but the military plan. So, I think it’s more likely that they can install a properly elected government.

Still then there is the fear of a Muslim Brotherhood-alied government, which would not be good. But I remain hopeful for a peaceful government. We shall see.

It’s a fairly common saying, at least in the Western world, that when you try to prohibit an activity on moral grounds ,the people will find a way to do it, anyway. This is usually made in reference to our current legal prohibitions on drinking for young people ages 18 to 21 and our legal (for pre-18s) and social (for 18 and above) prohibitions on casual sex. They don’t work.| MORE ›

I’m happy for the rebels in Libya and those who support them. All of Libyans, really. They’re free from a tyrant who has oppressed them for 30 years. Just a week ago, they seemed to be dead in the water. Even 48 hours ago, it seemed that Gadhafi’s forces would be successful in pushing them back from Tripoli. Yet, now it appears that the rebels may have won.| MORE ›

For the past five years, Israeli Yuval Roth and his organization “On the Road to Recovery,” have been driving sick Palestinians back and forth across the border to Israeli hospitals so that they can get treatment for their illnesses. The West Bank understandably doesn’t have the greatest health care system.| MORE ›

Editor’s note. Please welcome a new author to RATA: Chris Queen (U.S.). Chris and I worked together at David Horowitz’s NewsReal Blog. I was so impressed with his writing that I asked him to join the team here when that blog was discontinued. Chris blogs at his own blog Random Thoughts From The Revolution. Follow him on Twitter here.| MORE ›

I’ve been thinking about of the Middle East speech Obama will give tomorrow morning. Here are a few points of things I think the speech should cover:

• New governments in Middle Eastern countries must be of a liberal democratic nature, not an authoritarian/Islamist variety.
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Muammer Gaddafi once again succeeded in making a complete and utter fool of himself.

The powerless ‘dictator’ of Libya told his people in an audio recording released today to “prepare for a guerilla war” against the “imperial forces” that destroyed his regime. He added that the international forces want to occupy Libya for its resources (read: oil).| MORE ›

I’ll come out and say it.  I think the Arab Spring is a very positive development. I’m not talking about specific cases like Egypt or Yemen, but about the idea behind the Arab Spring. It’s an idea that many of us would not find unappealing: that the people of the Arab nations want to make their own way. Make their own future and not have it made for them. Pull themselves up by their bootstraps, you might say.| MORE ›

Tonight President Barack Obama announced a plan for the withdrawal of the 33,000 “surge” troops he ordered to Afghanistan in 2009. 10,000 of the troops will be home by the end of this year, and 23,000 more will return by September of next year.| MORE ›

Glenn Beck is on a roll. He recently traveled to Israel where he made clear that he stands with the Jewish nation-state. It may be surrounded by enemies, and Obama may throw it under the bus, but Beck isn’t about to abandon Israel – the only true democracy in the Middle East, by the way.| MORE ›

Ongoing upheaval in the Arab world and Middle East. Young people in Morocco, Syria, Yemen and Egypt are protesting against the rigid old powers. This clash between the young and the old is a classical one. 2400 years ago the Greek Playwright Sophocles wrote ‘Antigone’, about the stubborn King Creon who was challenged by his freethinking son and daughter in law.| MORE ›