Another one bites the dust. It is with great regret that I have to inform you that Muammar Gaddafi has fallen from power in Libya. Not that I knew him or thought that he was good for Libya or the world in general. Rather my regrets are for the manner of his passing from the world stage.

The United States and its Western allies have apparently learned nothing from their puppet government adventures in the Middle East. Consider Saddam Hussein, former ruler of Iraq, for example. We were responsible for Hussein being in power in Iraq. And we knew he had weapons of mass destruction because we made it possible for him to acquire them.

Imagine our surprise years later when he “slipped the leash” as it were. Those photos of him and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were more than a little inconvenient. So we spend billions of dollars and precious American lives to remove a puppet gone bad.

There have been others, the Shah of Iran, Mubarak of Egypt, Assad of Syria, even entire countries created out of whole cloth to suit Western interests. You would think after repeated and consistent failure at puppet governance, we would have learned to leave other people to sort out their own issues.

President Obama, continuing a tradition of both Republicans and Democrats in the White House, thinks he can decide on the legitimate leadership of other countries. What if Dubai decided that lobbyists in Washington purchased Congress and so it was not a democratic institution? Dubai would be right, but that is beside the point.

The point is that we should leave the Middle East and other parts of the world to determine their own destinies. They may not (hopefully not) follow the same paths we have, but that is their choice.

Patrick Durusau is a Covington resident.