[opergolon]

Not that I find myself defending Obama in recent days, but it could be he's backing down from armed conflict because people are becoming jobless and homeless and healthcareless at exponential rates, and he has a budget to manage that is so deep in the red, courtesy of the "mystery-funded" Iraq and Af/Pak conflicts Bush/Cheney forced us into, that Obama simply knows we cannot afford to throw our weight around.

Why should we? We've been bullying people on behalf of our rich corporate interests for far too long. Imagine the shoe on the other foot. Imagine some superpower other than us suddenly deciding it wants our agricultural region. And just moves in an takes it from us, bombs us, snipes our leaders, installs a puppet regime and just like that, we are no longer a sovereign nation.

We would HATE THAT. Why do we expect others to enjoy our "liberation"?