Here we go again

It seems no matter who's in the White House, we just can't avoid using our power to influence world affairs.
Recently, we partnered with France and Great Britain to get involved in the unrest in Libya. Remember when Barack Obama ran for president in 2008 and won by promising to get us out of our ill-advised war of choice in Iraq? Now, here we go again sticking our nose in another country's civil war which, frankly, is none of our business.
The difference, of course, is the motivation behind our most recent military action. While Operation Iraqi Freedom was all about getting rid of Saddam Hussein as part of a Bush family vendetta, protecting our oil interests -- Iraq does control 20 percent of the world's oil supply -- and "planting the seeds of democracy in the Middle East," our purpose for being in Libya isn't nation-building, but keeping Libyan strongman Muammar Ghadafi from murdering his own people. Much like we did in Kosovo under former President Bill Clinton, this is a humanitarian mission. Another big difference between this operation and Iraqi Freedom is that we have the support of the United Nations and the rest of the world. We're not out there on our own. Still, I have to ask, do we really need to be involved in what is essentially a civil war?
Humanitarian mission aside, I can't help but think that if we're going to make it our business to take out every evil despot in the world -- and there's no doubt that Ghadafi fits the bill -- then we're going to busy for a long time and our military is going to be stretched awfully thin. Also, is it really necessary for us to be involved? Look what happened when the people of Egypt decided to get rid of their longtime president, Hosni Mubarak. They managed to put an end to a 30-year dictatorship without firing a single shot just by organizing on Facebook. If it can happen in Egypt, why not elsewhere in the Middle East, without U.S. military intervention?
I'm not suggesting that we shut the rest of the world out and ignore the problems in the world. Obviously, as the world's sole remaining military superpower, we can't afford to do that. But I am suggesting that we should be very careful about where and for what reason we commit our military. And no matter what's happening in Libya, it's not somewhere we should make a long-term commitment.