keeping Libya "destabilized" is part of the playbook.
Same playbook used in Iraq, in Afghanistan and being tried in Pakistan.
Yemen is also a crucial area:
from last year:
For some months the world has seen a steady escalation of US military involvement in Yemen, a dismally poor land adjacent to Saudi Arabia on its north, the Red Sea on its west, the Gulf of Aden on its south, opening to the Arabian Sea, overlooking another desolate land that has been in the headlines of late, Somalia. The evidence suggests that the Pentagon and US intelligence are moving to militarize a strategic chokepoint for the world’s oil flows, Bab el-Mandab, and using the Somalia piracy incident, together with claims of a new Al Qaeda threat arising from Yemen, to militarize one of the world’s most important oil transport routes. In addition, undeveloped petroleum reserves in the territory between Yemen and Saudi Arabia are reportedly among the world’s largest.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article16248.htmlNow Yemen is being destabilized, too.
"Behind the scenes, the US is increasingly leaning on Saleh to encourage him to step down. The White House has reportedly called his position untenable and pushed for his departure.
And the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the United States froze a record $1bn aid package for Yemen shortly after the protests began. The deal would have included not only "counterterrorism assistance," which Saleh has reportedly used to bankroll his campaigns against Houthi rebels in the north and separatists in the south, but also development aid, which Saleh points to as one of the benefits of his unpopular relationship with Washington."
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/04/2011418193643493286.htmlMuch as I cheer the idea of "popular, pro-democratic" uprisings in the ME, I fear there is a concerted hidden agenda behind them.