Contending forces—be they from the ruling class or activists organizing from below—make strategic choices based on the quantity and type of the resources they have at their disposal.

On 12 March, the Arab League called on the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, reports The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal contends that “American liberals and the Western European chattering classes,” are the people mainly complaining about US presence in the Arab world, not Arabs. While the Obama administration, plagued by “American self-abnegation,” relies on the international community to intervene in the Libyan conflict, the United States may be losing the confidence of the Arab street.

Regardless of how the Libyan revolt plays out, in the global economy the humanitarian crisis is just one deadly aspect of the fighting. Thousands are believed dead, and the fabric of society has been shredded in what has become a civil war. But to the nations of Europe that have come to rely on a steady flow of oil and petrodollars from Moammar Kadafi's nation, the destruction of what could be called Libya Inc. is likely to be the most painful blow.

Libyan immigrants worldwide are banding together to call for aid to their embattled homeland and drumming up support for international relief groups. The Libyan Community Association of Oregon, for example, formed in February when the unrest first erupted. Since then, the state's Libyan community – some 225 people – has staged four rallies in the Portland area and helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for aid groups, says leader Jamal Tarhuni.

Nowhere have President Barack Obama's foreign policy approaches been in starker relief than during his unfolding travels in South America. Right now the use of military power in Libya is overshadowing his lead-by-example public diplomacy in his own hemisphere.

Turkey's prime minister has criticized the severity of the ongoing military operation in Libya, as proposals are being made to transfer control of the operation to NATO. There are questions about whether Turkey, as a NATO member, would accept such a move.

Nowhere have President Obama's foreign policy approaches been in starker relief than during his unfolding travels in South America. Right now the use of military power in Libya is overshadowing his lead-by-example public diplomacy in his own hemisphere.

When the United States Africa Command was created four years ago, it was the military’s first “smart power” command. It has no assigned troops, no headquarters in Africa itself, and one of its two top deputies is a seasoned American diplomat.