model where people in their provisional councils have functional responsibility, looking at those issues. they have been simulating the last couple of months what a successor government to the gadhafi regime may look like. that doesn t mean it will be easy, but i think it is impressive to see what they have put in chase. steve clem mondays from the new america foundation. hi blog is the washington note. thank you so much. looking forward to talking about this. appreciate it. thank you, rachel. joining us is professor at the university of michigan and author of engaging the muslim world. professor cole, nice to see you tonight. thank you for having me on. i know you have been in egypt and around the region this summer. do you think the involvement of alternate in this makes it a complicated outcome when this ends or is this relatively uncomplicated way the libyian s own uprising. the involvement of alternate
one of the reasons people left libya to fight the jihads is because they were under a totalitarian government. they had no hope in changing their own societies. even if there were a handful of those kinds of people involved in the opposition, might they not now be pulled into democratic politics if libya can establish that kind of government? so bottom line, professor cole, when we look at this opposition, is it basically a political statement to try to tie president obama to some sort of al qaeda faction with a tiny percentage of people that might or might not be there? or does it have some validity to say, hey, you know what? some portion of 9 opposition is al qaeda, and if obama is helping them, he must be helping al qaeda? there s no validity to it. but, you know, the fundamentalists have gotten pulled into democratic politics. that s the best thing that can
happen. the way you avoid them going to al qaeda is precisely to have a more open system where they have to run for elections and they can t just use guns. so you know, the vast majority of people who have announced their opposition to goif like misrata, and they re just the youth of libya. they ve put 0u9communiqu. the language they use is that of secular nationalism. this fear is just fearmongering. professor cole from michigan, we appreciate it. thank you for your time tonight. thanks for having me. the recall effort for republican state senators is going strong. we ll show you what progressives are doing to rev things up. when libs attack. when we come back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.
how did hamas get involved in all of this? she just wanted to throw everything in there. and other arabs and muslims, so scary. in the end why are they conservatives seeming to side with gadhafi? it s because they share a common enemy president obama. let s bring in an expert, juan cole, one of the top experts in the country in middle eastern affairs. so first question, is al qaeda heading the libyan revolt? al qaeda is not heading the libyan revolt. we know who the leaders are. they re based in benghazi. they have declared a transitional government. hillary clinton has met with them more than once. some of them were around gadhafi and broke with him. others are just like the notables of the city of
an objective. just encouraging them to do better, giving them impetus because we ve removed a lot of the forces that are against them is not going to make them succe successful. professor, real quick. what s our actions here? is it realistic to think about assassination? is it to get a mutiny from the troops, the mercenaries supporting gadhafi? or do we just say gadhafi is staying there, we ll just separate the two sides? well, i think it s unpredictable. when you go into this kind of situation, you don t know what s going to happen. i say we stick to the mission. to the extent the u.s. is involved in it, its mission should be humanitarian. if gadhafi looks like he s going to massacre people, he should be stopped from doing that. how the libyans work out their subsequent political arrangement should be up to the libyans and i m not so pessimistic about the possibility that the rest of the libyans will throw ka daffy