• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Yet another revolution in the Middle East is on the verge of overturning a dictatorial government. Demonstrations in the Gulf state of Yemen on Monday reached a critical mass with tens of thousands of people showing up in city centers across the country demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The protests provided the impetus for as many as a dozen top military commanders to defect and join the pro-democracy activists. Among them was General Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar, a close confidante of the president. Despite this the Yemeni Defense Minister vowed publicly that the military would defend President Saleh from any “coup against democracy.” However, the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post newspaper, Hakim Al Masmari called this moment “game over for Saleh,” and went as far as to say “we predict the end of this regime in the next 24 hours.” Saleh has offered to step down a year earlier than he had planned to but refused to resign immediately.

Meanwhile, in Libya, the revolution is unfolding under very different circumstances. Since the weekend, US and NATO planes have been bombing Muammar Qaddafi’s strongholds in Libya as per a UN resolution backed by the Libyan opposition. This morning, it was reported that a U.S. Fighter Jet crash landed near Benghazi – both crew members survived. Despite the fact that Libyan activists are largely in favor of the strikes to stave off further massacres, the American antiwar movement is dismayed at this third war front that has unexpectedly opened up in addition to Afghanistan and Iraq. Just Foreign Policy’s Robert Naiman is calling on Congress to debate the strikes on Libya. The Progressive’s Matthew Rothschild has called Obama’s actions “unconstitutional, naïve, and hypocritical.” Veteran journalist and author Robert Parry has pointed out the “double standards” and “selective outrage” of U.S. foreign policy. And, my guest Phyllis Bennis said “The legitimacy of the Libyan protesters’ demand does not mean that the decision by the United Nations and the powerful countries behind it was legitimate as well.”

GUEST: Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis is author of “Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN.”