I tend to agree with Bob's last post. There are many who rather embrace policies that protect the status quo to protect the interest of big busness and others, but this appears to an ideal time to devise policy that is aligned with our values. Regardless of whoever gets in power, they will continue to sell oil, so we can set that irrational fear aside for the time being.

Why we do embrace political change in our nation through the demoratic process, yet fear it when we see it happening external to our borders? Since there is no means in the Arab Nation-States for the nation to legally change its State their process is illegal, messy, and unpredictable, but not necessarily less democratic than ours.

For the most part I recommend only providing moral support to those trying to change their illegimate governments via mostly peaceful protests. However, once again we learn that peaceful protests don't work when the State decides to suppress with martial force. At that point great nations like the U.S., and organizations like NATO and the UN have to make hard decisions on what policy to pursue. Getting militarily involved in gray situations where the actors are largely unknown is risky, but failing to help the nation that is struggling for freedom is potentially immoral if we truly have a foreign policy that hinges on values blended with interests.

We don't know what tomorrow will bring. Some of these movements may succeed, while others fail, and even the successful revolutions may in the end bring little change. One thing we can predict though is these nations will remember how the U.S. responded, and if our response was aligned with our stated values.

This may be the new era for unconventional warfare as the proliferation of ideas through various forms of media prompt more nations to rise up and demand change. This won't be the UW of our past that was largely focused on guerrilla warfare, that doctrine and its associated TTPs will have to evolve into something that may be more appropriately called political warfare in response to new challenges, but it is a policy option we should be "prepared" to offer our leaders.