The Washington Post says Khadaffi’s forces are back on the offensive despite air strikes. The Justice Department released a memo claiming President had the constitutional power to lawfully launch military strikes in Libya without permission from Congress because he “could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest,” so even if it’s not working, it’s legal. Congress, take note.
Army Gen. Carter Ham also told lawmakers that American participation in a ground force would not be ideal, but it might happen. France is reported to have sent special forces into southwest Libya. The Strategy Page says prospects for a quick solution to the Libya crisis are not good. North Africans are continuing to flee to Europe. Some 250 may have just drowned.
NATO is investigating reports that it has bombed the rebels. It has also denied bombing Libyan oil fields. NATO reports increasing its tempo to 198 sorties per day, but less than half of that were strike sorties.
Jordanian jet fighters are escorting aid flights into Libya. The US is open to the idea of buying oil from Libyan rebels, according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The chairman of the rebels’ council has signed an apology for the role of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in the Lockerbie bombing” but have since repudiated it.
“The whole world knows the Libyan people are not responsible for Gaddafi’s acts over 40 years. An apology is not warranted for the simple reason that the Libyan people did not participate in these acts,” said Gheriani. “But there is the situation in the international arena.”
Meanwhile, UN air strikes have hit the palace of the former President of the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, after he refused to abide by UN-certified election result. UN Peacekeepers have surrounded the Palace.
U.N. peacekeepers have surrounded Gbagbo’s “last defenders,” France said on Thursday, after a week of heavy fighting to unseat him. French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said Gbagbo had about 1,000 men, 200 of whom were in the residence.
A U.N. spokesman in Abidjan told Reuters the United Nations had forces on standby in the upscale Cocody neighborhood.
Senator Lieberman has asked France to evacuate Israeli diplomats from the strife torn African country.
Too bad they can’t stop Hezbollah in Lebanon or raise an interest in Syria and Iran. The Washington Post quotes an Iranian opposition group which claims to have identified yet another nuclear weapons development site. “The National Council of Resistance of Iran said the alleged plant makes centrifuge parts for Iran’s uranium enrichment program and is closely tied to Iran’s Defense Ministry.” Thousands of protesters have taken to the Syrian streets in small towns near Damascus, according to the Gray Lady and the NYT reports that China’s new aircraft carrier may soon be ready for sea.
Martin Indyk of Brookings suggests that President Obama tell the Saudi monarch to step down and replace himself with a constitutional monarchy. “Such a compact would be difficult to negotiate in the best of times. It cannot even be broached in current circumstances unless the basic trust between the president and the king can be reestablished.” But it’s Obama’s only chance. “A revolt in Saudi Arabia could sink his presidency.”
Certainly the fires have been burning closer to Riyadh for a while. The Obama administration has known since 2009 that Yemen’s rulers were in trouble. Xinhua reports that “the Yemen-based Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) declared through the Abyan Radio Station that they have on Friday killed dozens of government troops and destroyed three tanks, hours after they gave a deadline for the army to immediately withdraw from their ‘Islamic Emirate.'”
And that’s the latest news from a period once known as the End of History. As Francis Fukuyama once wrote: “What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” Maybe you need a Reagan to do that, too bad it doesn’t happen automatically.
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