Libyan government forces continued attempts to advance against Brega and Misrata while NATO was reorganizing and re-thinking its effort. NATO leadership attempted to reduce the number of “cooks in the kitchen” while attempting to adapt to the Duck’s new “human shield” strategems. By deploying their heavy weapons in civilian areas and advancing in light vehicles similar to those used by the rebels, the Khadaffi forces had created new tactical problems for NATO air forces, which managed 14 strikes on Monday.
A retired US Army Lt. General argued it would ultimately take some ground troops to finish Khadaffi. James Dubik, writing in Foreign Policy, said the mismatch between the political goals and the military means left planners the difficult task of trying to protect elements on the ground solely from the air.
The way the United States and its allies have intervened in Libya has placed them on a dangerously slippery slope. Air power alone has not protected Libyan civilians, the declared objective in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, which authorized the military intervention. Nor have the rebels proved capable of making significant advances against Muammar al-Qaddafi’s forces. To effectively enforce the Security Council resolution, the coalition would need to put combat air controllers, advisors, and trainers on the ground — steps it appears unwilling to take.
There are unofficial reports that US and Egyptian trainers are already on the ground despite categorical assurances by the President that ground forces were categorically off the table. But Dubik notes that post-Khadaffi stabilization efforts will require them anyway, unless the US is willing to concede the long-term political control of Libya to whoever is willing to show up. Winning the peace may prove much harder than winning the war.
There is little appetite for yet another large-scale ground commitment, but wartime realities have a way of forcing themselves on those involved. And by intervening in the first place, however noble the motivation, the coalition is already involved in shaping Libya’s political fate. Once again, no one hopes that a post-Qaddafi Libya will be reduced to anarchy. But if that’s what happens, the coalition has the same moral responsibility — perhaps even more than before the intervention — to not let Libyans succumb to chaos. And from a purely security perspective, nor could the West stand by if the pro-democracy rebel force it helped were eclipsed by the Islamic fundamentalist inclinations of some of its members.
Just how difficult this may be is illustrated in Afghanistan, where the WSJ reports al-Qaeda returning to areas from which US troops have withdrawn. The reconstitution of al-Qaeda’s cells have forced the US to make repeated returns to abandoned areas in a process known as “mowing the grass”.
Over the past six to eight months, al Qaeda has begun setting up training camps, hideouts and operations bases in the remote mountains along Afghanistan’s northeastern border with Pakistan, some U.S., Afghan and Taliban officials say. The stepped-up infiltration followed a U.S. pullback from large swatches of the region starting 18 months ago. The areas were deemed strategically irrelevant and left to Afghanistan’s uneven security forces, and in some parts, abandoned entirely.
American commanders have argued that the U.S. military presence in the remote valleys was the main reason why locals joined the Taliban. Once American soldiers left, they predicted, the Taliban would go, too. Instead, the Taliban have stayed put, a senior U.S. military officer said, and “al Qaeda is coming back.”…
To counter the return, the coalition is making quick incursions by regular forces into infiltrated valleys—”mowing the grass,” according to one U.S. general. It is also running clandestine raids by Special Operations Forces, who helped scout out the location of the Korengal strike, U.S. officials said. The twin actions offer a preview of the tactics the coalition is likely to pursue in some parts of the country as its forces hand off chunks of contested territory to Afghanistan’s security forces. The process is already under way and is due to accelerate in July.
They also give a preview into the workings of the Obama military doctrine: withdrawing only to return; limiting only to escalate; commanding only to hand off command; staying in the air only to become drawn in on the ground. Perhaps nowhere was this more dramatically illustrated than the administration’s “decision that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11 conspirators would now be tried before military commissions in Guantanamo — just as they were going to be tried before his administration took over.” The ship of state had turned in a circle after burning huge quantities of time and money only to reach a point they vowed to depart.
The incoherence in the administration’s policies may be rooted in the absence of any real strategy except a media battle plan. The administrations seems unwilling to strike at the roots of the problem because that would be too triumphalistic while reserving for itself the right to meddle indecisively at many points in order to avoid being accused of insensitivity to humanitarian needs. It manages perceptions and palliates disease even at the cost of making things worse. And by doing so it accounts itself sophisticated.
The administration’s approach to terrorism is a case in point. It began by defining the term out of existence. Another problem solved. Then it set about managing perceptions and invoking legitimacy. Though the roots of al-Qaeda lie in Pakistan and the Middle East the President studiously avoids mentioning the extremist ideology or money funding it, and goes after the talking points, so the infection spreads and spreads and spreads.
The Taliban insurgency has gained strength in Pakistan’s border regions with Afghanistan in recent months despite a sustained government offensive against it, the Obama administration said in a stark new assessment of the war effort. …
But the report also evaluates U.S. efforts over the first three months of this year, and it underlines alarming trends in that period beyond the “deteriorating” security conditions in Pakistan’s tribal agencies.
It notes that in recent weeks, the Taliban has carried out more suicide bombing missions in Afghanistan against soft targets, such as army recruiting centers, government buildings and market places, leading to a “spike in civilian casualties.”
The return of al-Qaeda to the border regions is precisely the opposite of what President Obama hoped to prevent in the theater. In his Afghan strategy speech of 2009, President Obama emphasized the international legitimacy of Afghanistan in distinction to Iraq: “Under the banner of this domestic unity and international legitimacy – and only after the Taliban refused to turn over Osama bin Laden – we sent our troops into Afghanistan … For the first time in its history, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization invoked Article 5 – the commitment that says an attack on one member nation is an attack on all. And the United Nations Security Council endorsed the use of all necessary steps to respond to the 9/11 attacks. ”
It was all very legal, internationally at least. The stated goal of his strategy was simple: to keep al-Qaeda from reconstituting. But insufficiently noted in his speech was one key expansion of mission: the inclusion of Pakistan in the theater.
Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future … we will act with the full recognition that our success in Afghanistan is inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan.
We are in Afghanistan to prevent a cancer from once again spreading through that country. But this same cancer has also taken root in the border region of Pakistan. That is why we need a strategy that works on both sides of the border. …
In the past, we too often defined our relationship with Pakistan narrowly. Those days are over. Moving forward, we are committed to a partnership with Pakistan that is built on a foundation of mutual interests, mutual respect, and mutual trust. We will strengthen Pakistan’s capacity to target those groups that threaten our countries, and have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe-haven for terrorists whose location is known, and whose intentions are clear. America is also providing substantial resources to support Pakistan’s democracy and development.
But though the grass was being mown, the roots remained untouched. That he did not achieve his goal to prevent al-Qaeda from returning may probably be less important than the way he set about failing. While vowing there would be no more Vietnams, Obama implicitly expanded the theater of operations to include Pakistan while refusing to explain what victory meant on these terms. It was classic Obama. He created an implicit second front in Southwest Asia while promising not to expand the war. Ironically he cast the problem in terms of a “false choice” whose consequences he would escape by not being pinned down to anything. In this way he created for himself the freedom to engage everywhere while finishing nowhere.
First, there are those who suggest that Afghanistan is another Vietnam. … To abandon this area now – and to rely only on efforts against al Qaeda from a distance – would significantly hamper our ability to keep the pressure on al Qaeda, and create an unacceptable risk of additional attacks on our homeland and our allies …
As President, I refuse to set goals that go beyond our responsibility, our means, our or interests. And I must weigh all of the challenges that our nation faces. I do not have the luxury of committing to just one.
And so he commits to many as a way of avoiding being trapped in the one.
That process is now in full swing in the Middle East. A rebel Libyan General quoted in the LA Times lamented “I would like to say to you people that NATO did not provide to us what we need,” Abdul Fatah Younis said at a news conference in the rebel capital, Benghazi. If it is any consolation to the General, who himself was once a hated stalwart of the Khadaffi regime, the Obama administration has rarely provided what is promised to anyone. While the process is generally referred to as “Hope and Change”, it is sometimes known by the equivalent expression “Bait and Switch”.
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The Libyan General also was heard to say “Who is NATO and where are they?”
Good question. Given the Alliance’s stated objectives of protecting the member states from outside attack, who are they, really, and where should they be?
During the Cold War the U.S. repeatedly tried to point out to other NATO members that we were fighting the good fight against a common enemy in places like Vietnam. The European response was always “That ain’t what the paperwork says, jack.”
And as for the need for FACs, what did the Libyan Rebels think the SAS troops they arrested were going to do there? Surf?
I don’t understand to whose benefit this all is–i.e., ending up with an unstable stalemate in Libya. . . . very, very weird.
Truly amazing how bad this guy is. My only consolation (?) is that what can’t go on, won’t. We are into the final few doublings of catastrophic input, right before the rods melt or the wing comes off.
The Carter Era looks like the Golden Age right now.
The way things are proceding, I am encouraged that the Senate and the Executive could return to the Republican Party. What discourages me is the number of Rhinos that call themselves Republicans. Even after the 2010 elections the GOP old guard are trying to ouster the Tea Party movement – stupidly. (So long and thanks for all the fish.) The result is lost opportunities in turning back the Socialists/collectivists. The day after the 2012 elections, the dismantling of socialist strongholds should begin. We have about a year and a half to plan.
Met Dubik a few years ago. He is a sober, realistic man and not someone to pull a Chicken Little. His analysis is likely to be spot on. The issue will be the size of the ground commitment–just air/ground coordination? Or will some amount of intrinsic offensive capability be needed?
Gadhafi will build his light infantry formations as fast as the rebels do–ground stalemate likely. Anti-air missiles from Russia and China, like water in the American west, flow uphill toward money–sometimes around amazing obstacles. One or two lucky hits on NATO aircraft could put a real chill on some of the allies’ enthusiasm for close air support missions. Then the real pressure for the US to “do something” to “end the war” will be on.
Some say over the week-end a pair of Ruby Slippers on Smithsonian display were replaced with replicas, the originals being surreptitiously smuggled into the WH. Now all Teh One needs to do is tap his heels three times and keep repeating, “I am not George Bush”, “I am not George Bush”, and except for ending up in a Kansas wheat field, all should be well.
2. TamBram
Now that you mention it, it seems that nobody benefits from any sort of UN/NATO enforced stalemate that now appears inevitable. I’m not a conspiracy type of guy, but I have to wonder if there are some unseen players working an angle. It’s either that or else this is one major clusterfark.
KRB
The president’s strategy is clear: win the war in the American media.
My fellow citizens of the world
We’re in a war today
A war we neither sought nor want
A war that came our way
A war upon a peaceful group
In far off Hindu Kush
Who never did a thing to us
Begun by evil Bush
I am commander yes in chief
Of forces all arrayed
Including WaPo and the Times
And all the news that’s played
On every network TV show
Including those for laughs
And this is how we win this war
With lies and phony graphs
We have the papers on our side
And folks who tingle too
They’ll spin each storyline our way
We’ll turn the country blue
My goal is not to win the wars
In Libya or the Stans
The wars will be won here at home
With press, my trusty fans
The GOP, in Allah’s words
Will die election night
In 2012 we shall return
The future, friends, is bright
What we are seeing [once more] between NATO and Teh One is what happens when politics and warfare are undertaken wrapped in the mantel of “political correctness”. It’s as effective as playing football with a blown-up beachball. Lot’s of entertainment value but nobody’s likely to pass for a touchdown. And that’s probably the not-so-hidden motive.
The characteric of the Left is to expand the context of a problem in order to solve it. A problem has to be elevated to its maximum possible extent before anything meaningful is deemed possible in regard to it. That is because it is, at heart, a religion.
We have difficulties because we haven’t expanded governance enough; failed to consult a sufficiently large group of people; omitted to include enough social work and political components into a military — oops, kinetic event — campaign.
This is the opposite of real strategy which emphasizes subsidiarity and economy of force. You find the center of gravity and lean hard on it. The exact opposite tendency is dominant in Barack Obama, he likes dividing effort into penny packets. The cardinal error for him is to lean on a single point. To focus is give rise to Vietnam or Iraq. It’s a very sixties idea. To remain uncommited and yet in as deep as can be is cool.
The better way for him is to be constantly on the move. Consulting endlessly, reshuffling continuously, running around like a headless chicken to this point and that point. He wants to be strong everywhere by being everywhere.
In that he will fail and fail miserably. His Health Care system is a perfect example of trying to solve a problem with analyzable defects by globalizing its extent. Make it big enough and it will be fixed. When something is “too big to fail” it will succeed. But it won’t. It will simply fail globally.
He doesn’t get this yet, and maybe he never will. And you can’t convince his believers that he’s going about it the wrong way. Because as Kevin Drum says, ‘Obama is smarter than all of us. His judgment is better than my own.’ This is unlikely to change because the Left, as I endlessly repeat, is emotionally identical to religion.
Conversations w/ the hard left are never rational conversations in the sense they are about the truth or falsity of specific facts or situations. They are really debates about belief or world views. That’s why when a Leftist is converted, he needs another religion to convert to. He’ll become a “neo conservative” — whatever that means; or a fundamentalist Muslim. Or maybe a devout Christian. But he’ll never become an ordinary Joe who is happy to watch football or build bad furniture in the basement.
That is why Libya and Afghanistan are never really about Libya and Afghanistan. They are always about Great Obama versus the Chimp Bush.
Spang on as usual Walt!
Former lawmaker in Tripoli to ‘persuade’ Gadhafi – http://bit.ly/gdxLBE
Ex-Libyan oil minister says many Gadhafi insiders too scared to defect http://tinyurl.com/6xmcuuu
Boff tout le monde ment ! Evreybody’s lying !
Wretchard said:
“In that he will fail and fail miserably. His Health Care system is a perfect example of trying to solve a problem with analyzable defects by globalizing its extent. Make it big enough and it will be fixed. When something is “too big to fail” it will succeed.”
Obama draws his unrelenting and ill placed confidence from being simultaneously the most powerful man in the world and a symbol of its greatest victims. His policies make sense when you consider that anything he does or says is a fait accompli and whether or not that it will hold up to scrutiny is moot because it is scrutiny itself that will not be tolerated.
With that in mind, troubling times call for bold answers and when the Democrats saw Bush take over the government reins from the top to the bottom, uncritically outspend any president before him, create new mega agencies like the DHS, it became clear; “we got to get ourselves some of that crisis!” Just ask Rahm Emmanuel
The economic collapse was a one in a million miracle for Obama or it was an engineered thing by the money manipulating backers of BHO’s campaign.
Now health care, that was brilliant really. Consider that Medicare was going down the toilet, calling it too small an inadequate allowed sweeping the books into a new ledger without accounting for the immensity of its failure.
BHO waffled on the Egypt and he was not able to effectively wrap himself in its glory. And no Democrat wants to look weak; it would have been interesting to ask John Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs what his plan to rescue his own image were, but it turns out the answer was Viet Nam. That is until, according to our own celebrated Benedict Arnold, Daniel Ellsberg, it became Nixon’s war. But know this, hell hath no wrath than that of a Democrat scorned and we will see more of the same with a greater fury in the future. The problem just isn’t big enough now, just you wait and see.
Western powers, and leftists in particular, haven’t learned dick about running an effective military campaign, and they don’t care. All this is perfectly fine with Samantha Powers.
Samantha Powers isn’t even an American; she was born in Ireland and moved here, presumably to bring her crackpot ideas to a bigger audience.
Go home, Bridget.
Call it what you will, it’s still colonialism. They really need to send in the French Foreign Legion. Tradition, you know.
Meanwhile in Russia there are reports of large numbers of Senior Russian military officers suffering from concussions. It is said when in transport to military hospitals they were heard to be muttering about “If that is Nato we could have been in France in two weeks.” It is suspected the officers have been banging their heads against walls.
Read yesterday that the USAF had as many as 89 aircraft supporting this kinetic response to a man-caused disaster, but now is operating in a support roles, with tankers, ECM, and the like, and is down to 30 aircraft with direct involvement. The other 59 aircraft that actually blew up things have returned to their USAFE bases but remain “ready to support if required.”
Given the strong and somewhat mysterious French interest, maybe this war should be called an example of “Wag the Frog.”
Obama’s backtracking on policy and adopting the “conservative” ones of Bush II only show he is being pulled into the consensus. Bush II was no kind of conservative, like his father he was very much a part of and product of the liberal elite establishment, and the things he did after 9/11 were the product of veteran policy professionals at State, Defense, CIA, and Justice. (Wasn’t this Rumsfeld’s *second* time as SecDef? After a first with Ford?)
The establishment will do what they have to do to survive, and they know a second major terrorist action originating in Afghanistan/Pakistan will put the peoples’s passions out of control. (They also really don’t want a bunch of Americans killed, but I think that’s secondar.) They will do it with the least intervention they can, but support a drone war at a minimum- which may be the only sustainable long-term option.
Al Queda coming back to places we’ve left in Afghanistan?
No surpise there.
Their playbook is by Mao: “The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue”
Obama’s Prog transnational Powers-exchange resulting in a Farakhan We lose “victory”/ Clinton wag-the-tail distraction/ and Carter Blame ourselves, self-flagellating foreign policy all reduce to a personal mens/menstrual Mohammedan/mensch kind of submissive defective vibe.
Where are the brilliant and principled people who listen to the likes of Jeane Kirkpatrick(D) whilst coward-bully progressive Dems stick their fingers in their ears thinking they alone…
“Given the strong and somewhat mysterious French interest, maybe this war should be called an example of “Wag the Frog.””
unlike your politicians, righties and lefties, the frogs don’t profess the contrary to what they do. when one must go, he goes !
O’Captain Crunch reporting for duty, Sir.
Take me to your Leader.
…-
“Obama calls crunch budget talks
AFP – Stephen Collinson – 28 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama called crunch Oval Office talks Wednesday with Washington’s most powerful Republican, seeking to break a budget stalemate threatening to close vast swathes of the US government within two days.”
What I think soo many people miss is that Bill Ayres probably wrote THE ONE’s books. So why is that important? Ayers is the base idology that Obama works on. The 60′s were about the conversion of the US economy to French socialism at the least and full up communism as the goal. Foreign affairs other than getting us out of foreign adventures (SE Asia) was not much thought of or planned for. The Obama administration is peddling as fast as they can to disassemble the free enterprise system in the US. This foreign stuff is just rope-a-dope to keep the folks occupied while they nationalize the economy.
He looks lost because he doesn’t care.
Docbill
certainly not, your social force of inerty isn’t our socialists one, it’s still a AMERICAN’s double standards’one!
On the other are critics who think America’s leadership role in the world requires more than a wait-and-see approach to crises, especially when key US national interests are at stake.
“I assert that if we had called and declared a no-fly zone early on, three or four weeks ago, Qaddafi would not be in power today,” says Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Having failed to do that – and having pulled US airpower from the fight before the battle was won, he adds – Obama should now find a way to arm the rebels, perhaps through third parties.
The US should also join France and Italy in recognizing the rebels’ transitional national council as Libya’s legitimate government, he says.”
“Senator McCain says he understands both the attraction of “shared efforts” and the reality that America cannot enter every crisis in the world. But he says that the irony of belated US action in this case will be a stalemated conflict that will end up imposing a bigger humanitarian burden on the Libyan people.
The humanitarian implications of a military stalemate in Libya are also prompting some regional experts to urge the US to undertake a more active, if behind-the-scenes, role.
“From a Libyan viewpoint, dragging the country into a long political and economic crisis, and an extended low-level conflict that devastates populated areas, the net humanitarian cost will be higher than fully backing the rebels, with air power and covert arms and training,” writes Anthony Cordesman, national security expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a commentary Wednesday on the CSIS website”
http://tinyurl.com/65asu9a
W/10–re your oft-stated opinion that The Left is a religion, I agree. Strangely, I just finished reading Thomas Paine’s The Age Of Reason and immediately thought of it when you said it’s impossible to talk reasonably to those people.
It’s revelation, information from On High and from it stream the myths, beliefs, and superstitions of The Left. Witness that guy who said O is much smarter than he is, etc. It was decided by revelation, by an emotional experience probably the first time he heard O speak, or maybe just heard about him from another believer.
With all this in place it won’t matter what happens, it will all conform to The Myth, The Legend, The Revealed Truth. Only an election can correct a revelation—I hope.
I figure any day now we’ll see a bill board of Jimmy Carter with the “Do you miss me now?” tag and a move to replace Eric Holder with Janet Reno.
I’m on the Putin for President of the US band wagon, after all, if you are going to have a dictator get a competent one who knows when to cut and simplify taxes.
“What is best?” “To see the bodies of your enemies and hear the bleating of their goats.”
OT…..If you haven’t yet seen it, this is amazing – if only because it is still up on You-tube. I’m surprised someone didn’t link to it at “The Oracles” post.
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/american_studies/koran_burning_page_by_evi.php
18) RWE,
I guess that’s better than “Frag the Wogs.”
#28 Hunt Johnsen I’m guessing Lindsay Graham cries a lot in the men’s room as it is.
10.Wretchard…
– Kevin Dumb
Obama golf pal arrested in Honolulu prostitution sting
A regular Hawaii golfing buddy and Punahou School friend of President Barack Obama was among four people arrested during a prostitution sting operation in Kakaako by Honolulu police Monday night.
Exhelo:
But yours is more accurate.
P.S. The local Sherriff’s Dept apparantly is getting a surplus UH-1N. Some there view the acquistion with considerable trepedation. They have been flying surplus OH-58′s.
OT reply to comment on previous ‘chicken’ thread.
63. Jay, beltway
What do recommend in terms of investment in Canuck mining companies?
Can a regular Joe do online buying in the Canadian stock market?
Here in Canuck Land my online broker lets me buy stocks on Canadian and US exchanges so I expect you could buy Canadian stocks on line. I would recommend staying away from the Vancouver Stock Exchange – it used to be one of the most Wild West exchanges around. It is supposed to be better now but I avoid it and buy Canadian stocks that are listed only on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Be very careful about buying Canadian junior mining companies.
This is a good source for Canadian stocks
the hated general the la times quotes is why the west is setting up a stalemate between both sides.
neither side must win.
lybia is pudding.
Previous link to Canadian stock info was crippled.
This should work
Methods and meanings:
Obama listens to what his supporters and enemies want, then he throws out predicates for them and waits for them to organize themselves around those predicates. He is not in the process; he is outside of it.
For instance, with conservatives, he organized them by throwing out the “get Qaddafi” predicate in early March; McCain and others organized themselves around it and that gave Obama cover when he launched a military assault on Libya calling it a “humanitarian mission,” the predicate that organized his supporters.
But he was not interested in Libya, military success, or humanitarian missions. He was interested in getting a stick into the cynically named “Arab Spring” to increase the contradictions. He is not trying to win anything or save anyone. Thinking that he is interested in either is typical of the mistake those of us who think in terms of “bourgeois principles” have been making.
Obama is not just a Leftist, like Samantha Power. Obama is an orthodox Marxist. He is on the other side of the looking glass, thinking his thoughts in Marxist terms, reaching back through the looking glass and playing our “false consciousness” like a fiddle.
He imagines a world reduced to the bedrock of class struggle, where the cloud of bourgeois ideology lifts, and history is unstuck and moving again according to the laws of scientific socialism.
He could care less how anyone judges him on the “false consciousness” side of the looking glass.
Barack Obama is perhaps the best trained and most dedicated Marxist since Lenin. And he is in power.
Conversations w/ the hard left are never rational conversations in the sense they are about the truth or falsity of specific facts or situations. They are really debates about belief or world views.
Exactly. They resemble the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland. “Sentence first – verdict afterwards.” Or more accurately in these days and times, verdict first and trial afterwards with all evidence that conflicts with the verdict being held to be irrelevant and inadmissible as evidence.
Mark Levin, on his radio show today, talked about Obama’s daily schedule. Nothing very early, then jets off for a speech,attends a gala at night. Every day the same–maybe with the addition of golf.
So, what Obama is,is a figurehead, and the loony policies, Wretchard describes are from a leftist committee in the White House.
If the shenanigans in Pakistan spill over and disrupt our ally India, all the better says the committee and China.
I’ve got it! A plan so diabolically simple that it cannot possibly fail.
All we have to do is distribute millions of calendars and launch a Stuxnet type worm that resets computer clocks so as to convince everyone, or at least the Arabs, that the year is really 2007 and Bush and Cheney are still in charge. Instantly the Arabs will shut up, except for those standing up with a “please shoot me” sign, and the Libyan problem will be solved. As an added bonus this would be cheered on by TV comics who have become desperate in their tortured efforts to defend the Obama administration. They would leap at the chance to go back to Bush bashing. Everybody wins.
I will edit the unclosed tag.
38. Mel
“Obama is…a figurehead”
No, short answer: Obama is in power.
Longer answer: Obama could care less about what we call “competency.”
This is something that we had to know yesterday, or two years ago. Obama has no interest in any bourgeois performance standards. For instance, worse is better for him. He did everything he could to stall economic recovery. He added, for instance, a suffocating health care program on top of what he himself calls the worst economic conditions in our lifetime. But he didn’t just add that program; he stood outside the process and used that process to create wrenching uncertainty. He attacked business, even as he cultivated key business rentseekers. He moved so quickly to inflict damage that the most astute critic could barely call it what it was.
RWE,
It should be easy to find parts for! I flew H-1s in flight school; one of the last ones before they switched to H-57s (Navy’s version of the 58). That was a lot of fun; it was just the single engine D, though. Everyone I know who flew the Novembers loved them.
Obama’s performance today in Pennsylvania was very awkward and bizarre and it went badly. He was trying to relate to the crowd but it came out backwards. He came off like a patronizing elite. He even bizarrely tried to establish rapport by bring up the gool ole days of yore, when he used to pump his own gas.
Remember when the Elder Bush got into so much trouble by looking at his watch? By botching a price of milk question? By playing too much golf?
Sometimes I think Obama plays so much golf and takes so many trips just because he can. Half of the fun is getting away with it. But there has to be a point where such license runs out, and the minute it does Obama begins to look like a very small man instead of a messiah. The dude who picked Kansas.
He’s got to start solving a problem instead of kicking them all around, or he’s cooked. Not that I would care one whit about him or his legacy, but what we have here is a crisis in leadership. We need leadership, the times beg for it on so many fronts. And times will continue to disentegrate without leadership.
We don’t have a leader, we have a community organizer. A troublemaker. On energy? Nothing but trouble. On the economic crises? On foreign affairs? On the fiscal mess? The budget? Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble. Even his one signature issue, his one big acheivement, Obamacare, is nothing but a huge ball of trouble and more than half of the country can see it.
Can he provide leadership, though? Or does every matter, like his golf outings, have to have a little subversion baked in to even begin to interest him?
NATO had a major strategy meeting last November to define their new mission and new focus for the next decade.
NATO aligned with fundamental American interests in USCENTCOM, USAFRICOM and USEUROCOM.
Plus some other global collaboration on drug and terrorism interdiction.
This action in Libya is working out the kinks in this new global strategy for NATO–always a bit bumpy at first-as they operate by consensus–but it it working out very well.
USAFRICOM is a new AOR but increasingly important for US fundamental interests in energy, minerals and balancing China’s colonization of Africa.
From the EU point of view the key issues is energy security and they see Turkey as the critical bridge between East and West for that resource.
Libya is a learning case for the new NATO.
#43 Cowboy
He even bizarrely tried to establish rapport by bring up the good ole days of yore, when he used to pump his own gas.
Glenn Reynolds notes, following an inquiry from a reader, that the AP scrubbed an earlier version of this news item which contained the following anecdote: “Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.”
Reynolds continues: “In fact, I [got a screenshot]. And a good thing, because the story’s been almost completely rewritten. But the ‘memory hole’ doesn’t work very well any more. Here, for the sake of history, is the story as it used to be. And if anyone from the Associated Press would like to email me to explain this change, I’m all ears.”
Screenshot of the original story at the link: http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/118137/
http://www.healthcarebs.com/2011/04/06/cbs-wapo-getting-obamacare-kickbacks/
Basically then Obama has purchased the MSM with taxpayer money.
My, my, my, what a shocking surprise…not.
This Forbes Magazine article about the shale gas reserve explosion worldwide includes a picture of where the shale gas reserves are found. Its pretty interesting. (The estimates didn’t include Russia or its former republics or central africa.)
http://blogs.forbes.com/williampentland/2011/04/06/u-s-raises-global-gas-resource-estimates-by-40/
How interesting it is. The culture of the elites believes that everything that is can be made better if we sweep away the culture there is and restart from zero, and putting in place the Utopia that only the Wise could design. The other dynamic is the people who want to preserve their culture and want to sweep away those same elites who see them as being nothing more than lab rats.
It will be interesting to see who wins. I suspect that the losers shall be shown no mercy.
As for myself, and as I have said before, the only good social engineer is a dead social engineer.
Given the anger that Obama’s economic and foreign policies are generating world wide with some “serious” players, I wonder if they’ll start making “moves” on him prior to 2012. I’m thinking of players in the Middle East and Asia that make Iran look like small potatoes in terms of money and/or experience in shadow war??
48. TC
“It will be interesting to see who wins.”
Probably those who wield the most power, either by violence and the willingness to use it verses the sheer force of numbers. But the later is weak as we see any stable dictator will hand out just enough goodies to keep its reactionary forces, like teachers unions, on the street. Our pols are importing their own mercenaries with their own violent affiliations in the form of fourteen thousand illegal alien gang members in LA alone. These terror squads are a financial boon to pols and law enforcement while guaranteeing them a stake in shrinking budgets and it gives progressives hate groups an effective bludgeon against Anglo-America. These murder squads are already forcing citizens inside and they will eventually give ample cause for curfews that we will all thankfully agree to.
It will come down to greed verses honor in the end. Greed has a head start.
Certainly, The C-I-C can declare:
“No one should harbor any doubt that our intervention is a humanitarian one, that our intentions remain committed to humanitarian concerns and that our goal is saving lives on the ground.”
The real test is whether he’ll be able to say it with a straight face.
(My bet is that Yes, He Can!)
Of course, the C-I-C could have said the same thing about his health care bill….
…which, it seems, some of the legislators are finally getting around to reading:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/uncovered-new-2-billion-bailout-obamacare
And he could have said more or less the same thing about…
… cutting off support for Mubarak or Tunisian president Ali.
(while throwing in something about “hope” and “the people”)…
…or about continuing to support Assad…
(while throwing in something about “reform”)…
…or about creating a Palestinian state.
(while throwing in something about “justice”)…
…or about keeping silent about Iranian protests…
(while throwing in something about “prudence” or “the virtues of non-interference”)…
…or about promoting “civil discourse.”
(while throwing in something about those racists in the Tea Party)…
…or about the noble aim of “transparency in government.”
(while adding another czar or two to his already over-sized stable)…
Etc.
It’s one of those grand all-purpose bromides that are most useful when you are–”All Things to All Men.” (“All Women” too, no doubt.)
(Made doubly, triply useful when spread thickly around by an obsequiously loyal media.)
17. toadold
NATO air power would have held the Soviets off for a while. Long enough, IMHO. The Low Countries and the Rhur are mostly a creek and a bridge, followed by a creek and a bridge. Factoring in the Millions of Germans in their Mercedes fleeing the barbarians, The Soviets would have been lucky to advance 20 Km’s a day. About 4 creeks and bridges per diem. Soviet logistics suck. They could and would have over ran Germany, but that would be about all. Remember, NATO outnumbered the PACT.
In 1982, NATO had a population of 633 million, give or take. The PACT 386 million.
The Pact had 1.9% of it’s population under arms, while NATO had .6%
So the Soviets had an initial advantage in any shooting war. That advantage would have vanished in a few months. Twice the population, 10x the money and industrial potential. The Politoboro knew they had to defeat NATO in the first 6 months or they couldn’t.
THAT is why the cold war stayed cold. Lots of other factors but basically, the Soviets set things up post WW2 so it was them vs the world. They lost.
Coalition warfare is the most difficult kind of war to wage. The USA was born doing coalition warfare and seems to have a knack for it. We make it look easy, when it isn’t. It will be amusing to see if NATO can keep the Anti-Libya coalition together after the Duck of Death wins the breathing space to start offensive operations and work on splitting the coalition.
If I was the ducks strategos, I would have already started on getting a few hundred ‘Allah Akkabar’ types from Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo into Italy for a Raid on one of the Air bases being used by NATO.
mc/25, The US should also join France and Italy in recognizing the rebels’ transitional national council as Libya’s legitimate government (quoting McCain)
What, and give up *show business?
*MENA “show business” [1] KSA talks to Moscow before setting price and production standards for OPEC [2] China as the untainted outsider invited to broker Libya [3] Israel ”reasonably” returns to pre 1967 borders, with UN air and armor in offensive force as ‘peacekeepers’ based inside those borders.
>progress report April 07, 2011:
[1] offensive underway, paradigm overturned, issue in less doubt every day.
[2] offensive underway, paradigm overturned, requires further crisis-mongering but strategy extremely successful to date, issue in less doubt every day.
[3] memetic offensive underway, pushing historical “Big Lie” envelope (led by comely redhead new-mom grooming as next Sec of State) and utterly unanswered in MSM, paradigm overturned, USA neutralized, R2P in place, Financial Crash II and (openly Communist-led) Flotilla II set for Month of May; depending most proximately on quality of Netanyahu crisis-response re Flotilla II, issue up for grabs.
***
Martin McPhillips in #36 & #41 is dead right, imho.
PS/54, … USA producing-class ultimate target, effective coup against Israel to break massive private-sector tech-sector links between Israel and USA, reversing meager USA economic growth (the ‘double dip’) and thus, vital ‘confidence’ factor in Capitalism.
***
What to do? Dunno –other than to impeach, and fight the fight while we have a chance to win rather than after we don’t –a ‘spoiling attack’ which would definitely do enormous spoiling of the possibly illusory Marxist coup underway, but also the possibly illusory Capitalist recovery.
The obaman deliberate uncertainty (likely a mimic of FDR’s continual dropping of programs before they could mature, in favor of brand new programs, also sold as ”the administration is working hard to find answers’ but in fact putting the Depression under executive political control in service of a hidden ideological agenda), which our darkest vision sees as a disguised attack on the economy, morale, power, and future of the USA, also, we must keep mind, offers the possibility that Obama could assay the work so far, decide that enough is enough for now, and switch direction in favor of returning to actually being a president ‘for’ the USA in time to keep the Democratic Party alive to fight (win more in a better more certain way) another day.
One big push to disperse the tali’s and AlQudy’s then we get out.
When the talis and Al Qudy come back and begin to rebuild their camps while we watch then after there arelarge working compounds of talis and alq’s we bomb the camps with small tactial nukes or at least MOABs.
Let’s see how many we can irradiate before they talis/a;qudy get the message.
Attack Afganistan as if it and every afgani is the enemy, hit all their cities and towns all the poppy fields and all the crops. make war against the entire population and do it from the ships and bombers, no boots on the ground. Do it every time and do it thouroughly.
If the bozo’s don’t get the message fine we will kill them all.
Win/Win Situation.
I watched some morning news shows, and saw something very interesting.
Or rather, didn’t see something.
No one – not on any outlet – is talking about Libya. It’s as if suddenly it’s just off the agenda.
There’s no clearer sign possible that this war is over, and Qaddafi has won.
we have lost.
Move along, nothing to see here, folks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjK2Oqrgic
47. Charles
If the estimates are true the game has changed forever. In the land of milk and honey, the honey means light sweet crude. Israel has more oil and higher quality than Saudi Arabia and enough offshore gas to power itself for 20 years.
This shale deposit is apparently more easily extracted than US deposits because the aquifer runs under it, not through it and the quality is very high.
http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=211676
Unlike most oil producing countries Israel already has a powerful economy not dependant on natural resources. Problems which accompany oil dependant economies and societies are thus unlikely to occur.
Geopolitical implications are enormous. Also note the locations on the map. All within Israel proper, not on disputed land.
http://geology.com/usgs/oil-shale/israel-jordan-oil-shale.shtml
Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s security chief and mass-killer extraordinaire:
”To produce a maximum of chaos in the culture of the enemy is our first most important step. Our fruits are grown in chaos, distrust, economic depression and scientific turmoil. At last a weary populace can seek peace only in our offered Communist State, at last only Communism can resolve the problems of the masses”
You can bet, Obama’s groomers at the Midwest Academy drilled the concept into their anointed one.
Despite all the sturm und drang of military and economic policy Hope and Change, these areas are tactical; the strategy is ‘psychological exhaustion’ –in hard play against Israel and USA and the free world in general –given time and exposure, certain to result in steadily-growing acceptance of ‘historical inevitability’.
And best of all, for a president, it’s easy –just act like you have no idea, and things will fall apart on their own. Your desk is a giant valve, it can destroy by ‘not-opening’ –which conveniently is plausibly deniable as to malicious intent.
Just play a lot of golf at the wrong times, that alone will go a long way.
…then, come the revolution, all those golf courses will make great mass graves for the Bitter Clingers (‘bitter Klingons”).
Note, though, that in post-modernese, if you win, you lose and if you lose, you win.
IOW we have ‘em right where we want ‘em(!).
OT, but saw that 10 Yr US Treasuries are now yielding 13 basis points over 10 Yr German sovreign debt (Bunds). German credit risk better than US credit risk now? Even with all of the obligations that Germany will likely have to support via EU bailouts? The market speaks.
Buddy:
As said above and you, O is a Marxist to the core. Anyone who views him as anything else is misleading themselves. It is about the Marxist conversion of the US economy/culture. The more confusion, turmoil, and chaos the better. Then only the ONES can save us from the obviously failing capitalist system. We all have to recognize that scientific government is THE answer, don’t you know.
57. wws
Not sure “over” is the right word. Paused is more accurate. Any one of the lower tier NATO nations can reduce Libya to vassel status in a week, if motivated.
The Duck of Death will win. Look at his letter to the Obomination. He knows so long as he appears reasonable and willing to talk, the West will not stop what it is doing long enough to assemble the Men and money it needs to stomp him into the sand. Yet that is what HAS to happen for the Duck to lose.
R2P is colonialism. Changing the name doesn’t change anything else.
BTW, is there independent conformation of Israel status as a new OIL power? I have no doubt that I’m not the only one that has noticed that R2P is only being applied to nations with exploitable resources. Why rob somebody that is poor?
It seems like a fine bit of disinformation. If true, it will turn all those European Jew haters into suitors. That will be highly entertaining to watch. How do you say ‘grovel’ in German? French? Italian?
docbill/62, yep –cloward/piven ain’t so damn brilliant, i saw Uncle Scrooge use in a comic book a long time ago –he’d knock over the checker board when he was losing the game.
He could do that, because his knees were always free to do as he wished, including to come up under the board and knock it up into the air a few inches and spill all the checkers onto the floor.
That way he never had to have the better game, he would just keep huey, louie, and dewey from ever winning, until finally they gave up and quit playing the game.
Then, since nobody would play him anymore, Uncle Scrooge was declared the winner of the tournament and won first prize.
What had gone unnoticed was the rule so fundamental that nobody could grasp that it was actually the first rule of the checkers tournament –that all the players needed to be playing checkers. Uncle Scrooge wasn’t.
I don’t know that we have “lost.” I don’t think winning was ever the idea. Its pure speculation on my part, but I thought near the beginning of this mess that the real motive was to shake down the Duck for oil concessions. As I understand it the Libyan oil fields are under-utilized.
In the meantime, the rebels, most of whom are not our friends, get effectively abandoned so the Duck can eliminate them at his leisure. Its a win-win situation for some party or parties. Oil and dead Islamists. Thus in the name of Humanitarianism self-interests can be pursued. And in this modern age, that is the face of Humanitarianism.
Color me cynical.
Daffy ups the ante:http://www.zerohedge.com/article/gaddafi-starts-bombarding-his-own-oil-fields
wws -”it will turn all those European Jew haters into suitors”
Think not. It only reinforces the notion that the ‘illegitimate’ Jews are sitting on top of the Palestinian’s oil.
If the Jews migrated to the Crab Nebula, that too would be legitimately palestine, and the Jews would be guilty of Crimes Against Outer Space.
“Crimes Against Outer Space” = CAOS?
The Crab Nebula was discovered by Arab astronomers in 1057. Its major star in the constellation of Taurus
is Aldebaran. ‘The name Aldebaran is Arabic (الدبران al-dabarān) and translates literally as “the follower”, presumably because this bright star appears to follow the Pleiades, or “Seven Sisters” star cluster in the night sky.’ (wiki)
So it is, that the Crab Nebula was claimed by Allah (PBUH) many years ago, so Nice try Buddy. You are an unwitting stooge of the neocons and a propagandist for the bloody Netanyahu regime!
Crimes Held Against Outer Space = Chaos
buddy, don’t be misunderestimatin’ Donald Duck & McScrooge. These ducks have the stuff of genius!
http://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html
59. buddy larsen: “…then, come the revolution, all those golf courses will make great mass graves for the Bitter Clingers (‘bitter Klingons”).”
If it comes down to violence, my money is on the Cling-ons, and I are one. It isn’t just the hunters and rural marksmen that make the differnce. Most military people I have worked with these past 24 years have been staunch conservative. Most own multiple weapons and plenty of ammo. So, bring it on Progressives; “This isn’t Russia Danny.”
Cowboy, that is amazing. I will never misunderestimate a duck again… even The Duck of Death!
Last summer Kissinger pointed out that the solution to Afghanistan will have to involve neighboring states–Starting with India then China and Iran as well as Russia.
All of these states have an interest in preventing the establishment of a Narco-Terrorist state on the border or near border.
Kissingers solution is now being implemented
“All major anti-Taliban operations have been suspended in the southwestern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Uruzgan, the Taliban’s spiritual heartland, as an international reconciliation process gathers pace, an Asia Times Online investigation has found. ……
All concerned international and regional players have agreed that Turkey should host the next round of talks with the Taliban, possibly as early as next month.
Unlike previous rounds, though, that primarily involved a few Muslim states including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, all major players including the United States, the United Kingdom and India are very much onboard for this latest reconciliation process”.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MD08Df03.html
am/69, well, heck, i started to use Alpha Centauri, but it’s just so close by, only 5 light years, i was sure it was already Palestinian, Russian, or Argentine Junta’n –then thought of Orion, but that has to be Irish and i didn’t want any trouble out of the bewitchin’ Samatha Power, who nose the ways of dublin’ her power and might be darrin’ to declare a Right to Protect my fridgerator. anyway, that Duck family link is fantastic. Daffy would say, dethpicable, that the Ducks aren’t getting royalties. and that CHAOS business, Criminal Hebrews Attacking Old Sol, that’s those Bagel Boys from Scrooges Dream sequence, Captain Quirk and Doctor Sphinx in the Illicit Enterprise will needs be lead a flotilla of Jihadi-Communist religioatheistix Impossible Stirtrippers out to Battleground Photosphere and declare an ElmerFudda
***
speakeasy, me too, slow boil
“Criminal Hebrews ”
Missed that one. By the way, are those Bagle Boy Jeans you are wearing?
OT:
Surely off topic, but I can’t resist. Saw an interview earlier on CNN where Suzanne Malveaux talked to Donald Trump. Of course she brought up the birth certificate. The Donald dug in. Malveaux carried water for Barry like she’s related to him. Hilarious. I was laughing so hard I cried. Now the media is striking back with information that that interview with Aunt Sarah Obama in Kenya where she said Lil’ Barry was born in Mombasa was a “misinterpretation” (this was also on MSNBC a few minutes later so I’m assuming this is the official line now being taken). When confronted with this evidence, The Donald sarcastically says, “Oh, so now it’s a misinterpretation…”. Malveaux also said something about only 30% believing Barry’s not American and Trump says, “What, those 30% don’t matter?” Man, my sides still hurt from laughing. Go get ‘em, Donald!
Actually, I think Barry probably was born in America (unfortunately). But this stuff is just delicious to hear. And if anyone can get away with it, it’s The Donald. Am I right? People expect confrontational stuff like this from Trump. It’s how he is and everyone knows it. People like it coming from him.
Dack…
I used to think he was born in Hawaii…
Until I realized that his birth would evidence a felonious crime, statutory rape of a White girl by a 40+ Black Communist man!
Stanley was a MINOR giving birth to a mulatto baby in 1961 Hawaii.
A police report would be mandatory!!!
I have yet to see ANY evidence that Obama, Sr. ever married Stanley; she would have been his second (!) and Hawaii did NOT accept polygamy in 1961.
The actual biological father is most certainly Frank Marshall Davis. Look at the photos.
This card-carrying Communist fled Chicago to beat the heat.
So is it an accident that he hung around the Wan — indoctrinating him as a teen — and then sent him on to Chicago?
I don’t think so.
Going to Kenya for an out of state birth was as common as dust for out of wedlock births circa 1960.
Abortion was illegal everywhere in America.
FMD was loaded — and in BIG legal trouble. That’s where the money came from.
In Kenya, every manner of problem went away.
And, yes, FMD wrote of three-ways with his white wife and a white minor!
VietLibyaNam …
Perhaps the Chinese will assent to supplying Kadaffy Duck with weapons. Maybe they still have some left over from the Korean affair.
77. blert
agreed
76. Dack Thrombosis
saw the interview posted on Drudge this morning. imho most of the political class in dc reads drudge with their morning jo. imho further this represents a sea change on this one.
Hey, can’t we just seize Libya by Imminent Domain? I think there is a supremes court case on that, Kelo vs. New London. i’m sure once they see the letterhead on THAT court order, they will surely back down.
Wretchard, #10
Spot on, Richard. Absolutely correct. To understand how a hardcore-leftist thinks, you have to understand how their belief in secular-humanism shapes their entire world view.
Obama is a true believer and in comparison to his “big picture” view, ruinous national debt, American soldiers in body bags, real unemployment hovering about 15% for three years, crippling energy prices, and declining US influence in the world are just minor speed bumps. He will remain firm on his course regardless of the costs to his political party, his family, or the US nation, unless of course, his course of action threatens the advance of his ideology. “Can’t waste a crisis”, to “make an omelet ya have to break a few eggs”, “… the bitter-clingers ..”, “.. spread the wealth ..”, ” .. time to consider a (auto) trade in ..”, and so forth, don’t ya now.
It’s not that Obama “doesn’t care”, it’s just that he’s a “.. let them eat cake ..” kind of guy. After all, he’s pumped gas just like you, you know, while he was a non-existent student at Columbia, working his way through college when his Soros checks came in short.
Here’s hoping for change you can believe in,
Old Salt
re: NATO Libyan strategy
I guess I’m just a simpleton. Khadaffi could I suppose continue an Iraq-like guerrilla strategy for quite some time, but he can’t advance with vehicles, let alone with armor, without fuel. His supporters can’t survive without food and water. It would seem that the weakest link for Khadaffi’s army, as with all army’s, is his logistical support.
Cut off his fuel, and his supporters walk to battle, humping ammo and mortars.
Cut off his food, and his supporters abandon him.
Cut off his logistical support, and his cause will be quickly hopeless.
Cut off his access to oil revenues and use his oil instead to perpetually fund the military effort against him (NATO and rebel forces).
Blockade the Duke on land and at sea. Starve him inside or outside of his cities. Destroy his water supplies. Folks, it just ain’t that hard.
Khadaffi is NOT Al Qaeda. He may be a little nuts, but he’s not crazy, and he’s definitely not an Iranian Shiite. He’ll bug out when he sees the end coming, just as he turned in his nukes when he saw the American storm rising from the ashes of 9/11.
The ONLY reason that Al Qaeda and the Islamic resistance supporters survived in Iraq (slightly changing focus here), and now in Afghanistan for as long as they have was America’s steadfast refusal to operate as if we were in a real war. All Bush had to do, and this has been infuriating to me, was smack down Syria, hit Iran, maybe even hit Saudi Arabia, and the opposition in Iraq would have dried up. Hit Pakistan hard, and the war in Afghanistan ends, or the Pastun will soon be using muskets in their fight. Yes, Iraq had long borders, but you don’t need to seal borders, just remove the incentives and increase the costs of providing logistical support to combatants through those borders.
By placing the civilian lives of the enemy at the top of the priority list, we’ve ensured an endless supply of dead Americans, $Trillions in expenses America CANNOT afford, and very probably, failure and lost respect throughout the world. (Why is “respect” important? In a world of international bullies, respect is what keeps you from having your teeth kicked in regularly, or worse. Respect is what ensures a nation’s peace and freedom.)
I’m NOT saying that the USA should be “Nazi’s” (or Soviet’s) in the prosecution of war. The USA should have been “the USA”, or more precisely, the USA of 1945 at war which placed the interests and safety if it’s citizens and friends above all others. We would never wantonly kill civilians as a mere terror threat. However, as a tactical option, starving the city of Tripoli sounds like a pretty good strategy compared to the cost in terms of lives and treasure of sending in 50,000 or 100,000 American troops into Libya to end Khadaffi’s insane rule. And the Libyan’s just might achieve true democracy and self-sustaining freedom in the bargain.
Of course, if “drill-baby-drill” and “mine-baby-mine” until American is a net energy exporter replaces “hope and change” as a national energy, America can substantially withdraw its footprint from the world globe. Yes, we are trading “blood for oil”, because that’s apparently the cost of the fight against “global warming”. Who says religion ain’t expensive?
Old Salt