Sunday, March 20, 2011

Are We In The Nick Of Late?


I have been genuinely torn over the issue about a “No-Fly Zone” in Libya.  It took me about a week to decide that indeed it was the right thing to do.   Now that the deal is done I’m a little concerned with how it was implemented.  That might open me up to criticism that nothing Obama does will make me happy.   That is not so much a function of my politics as it is the penalty we all are paying for having someone in the White House who doesn’t share our values or reverence for America, its culture and its institutions.  

If I had access to the same information that President Obama has at his fingertips I might have acted in a similar manner – but I don’t think so.  The news implies that plans were being made last week and certainly that would have been necessary in order to execute Tomahawk strikes and airstrikes.  Keep in mind that the uprising in Libya began on 15 February – more than a month before we took action.  I would hope that the President had called together advisors to identify options that early, but I doubt it.  Certainly the defection of several Libyan diplomats around the world (21 February) and Qaddafi’s call to crush the rebellion (22 February) should have triggered such action – I don’t know.  By 5 March there was an identifiable rebel group that we could have at least communicated with and I hope that happened – again I don’t know.  My point is that planning and repositioning of military assets should have occurred several weeks before they appear to have. 

The most powerful signal that we should have sent was the movement of an aircraft carrier – but that doesn’t appear to have happened.  Certainly we are taxed at this moment – but the mobility of ships cannot be overstated in a situation like Libya.  Why didn’t we?  We will probably never know until someone writes an insider’s expose’ of the Obama administration – but that is no doubt years away.  I think that the solution to why is probably in the makeup of the President.  He is not about freedom – that isn’t his shtick.  The fight of people for freedom doesn’t resonate with Obama the way it did with George Bush.  Does anyone doubt for an instant that the US response timeline would have been shorted substantially had George W. Bush been in office?  Freedom was in Bush’s DNA, Obama’s DNA runs to government control. 

We also might hear some legitimate grousing about how the action was implemented.  I’m not at all sure that the American people have been presented the case for intervention and it appears that Congress may not have been consulted either.  This isn’t the first thing that Obama has implemented against the clear will of the American people.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  I won’t grouse about the “double standard” but can you imagine being a Code Pink lunatic watching President Perfect slamming Tomahawks into Libya?  They are probably wondering what happened to Mr. Hopey-Changey. 

I am happy to see British and French planes involved.  I will be properly impressed when or if Qaddafi’s Arab neighbors pitch in and help as well. 

Now that we are it this thing, we better support the guys and gals who are implementing this action.  Hopefully our actions have come in time to help the burgeoning movement in Libya. 


The Roots of Obama's Rage 

8 comments:

  1. Obama, as usual, is late with his decision. After waiting for the opposition in Iran to be completely annihilated, he must have caught some flack from someone important to him. So this time he didn't wait for the opposition to be completely wipde out, but they have taken a severe beating. As a Marine, you know you can't vasillate on command decisions. I would be more impressed with Obama if he made a few quick wrong decisions instead of studying a situation to death and still deciding wrong. God help us if we have allowed freedom to be quenched while we watched.

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  2. Agreed - it looks like we are having to depend on the British and the French to do the heavy lifting this time. While our administration is swearing off targeting Qaddafi the Brits sling a couple of missiles in his direction today. Cameron and Sarkozy must have agreed to pick up the slack for the world while we go through four years of institutional insanity.

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  3. Amigo,

    You must be feeling particularly generous today.

    As you know, I have been an ardent foe of any action in Libya since I know that Zero will screw it up as he has already. I predict a 100% epic failure. Mind you, I am all for kicking some sand-nazi butt when it is deserved.

    The idiots at the UN own this mess. I don’t remember which moron announced that Qaddafi would be charged with crimes against humanity a few weeks ago but it certainly limited his options down to either fight or to fight. Better would have been a private conversation, “leave with your billions and move to Venezuela or Cuba and we won’t kick your ass”. That would have saved a lot of trouble but it would have prevented some valuable face time on TV for some diplomats.

    Tomahawks cost about $500K a pop. 50 million is already too much spent on that quarrel. In the end, we won’t get any credit for it. The folks will no skin in the game will reap the rewards and once again, the USA will be the great Satan.

    I hope that we don’t sucked into nation building again.

    First of all, this action is unconstitutional since congress did not authorize it. The UN did. Zero knows it too since during his campaign he said, “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

    WTF?

    Hitlary knows it too. Here are her words as then NY senator: “The President has the solemn duty to defend our Nation. If the country is under truly imminent threat of attack, of course the President must take appropriate action to defend us. At the same time, the Constitution requires Congress to authorize war. I do not believe that the President can take military action -- including any kind of strategic bombing”.

    Again WTF?

    Don’t hold your breath for any Arab nation picking up the tab. They will probably back-peddle from their initial support then blame us for some innocents being killed for which we must pay dearly.

    Am I cynic? Not hardly, I don't trust Zero's agenda and I don't trust the sand-nazis.


    I wonder if resident Zero will need to return his Nobel Peace Prize.

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  4. Amigo,

    As you know, I have been an ardent foe of any action in Libya since I know that Zero will screw it up as he has already. I predict a 100% epic failure. Mind you, I am all for kicking some sand-nazi butt when it is deserved.

    The idiots at the UN own this mess. I don’t remember which moron announced that Qaddafi would be charged with crimes against humanity a few weeks ago but it certainly limited his options down to either fight or to fight. Better would have been a private conversation, “leave with your billions and move to Venezuela or Cuba and we won’t kick your ass”. That would have saved a lot of trouble but it would have prevented some valuable face time on TV for some diplomats.

    Tomahawks cost about $500K a pop. 50 million is already too much spent on that quarrel. In the end, we won’t get any credit for it. The folks will no skin in the game will reap the rewards and once again, the USA will be the great Satan.

    I hope that we don’t sucked into nation building again.

    First of all, this action is unconstitutional since congress did not authorize it. The UN did. Zero knows it too since during his campaign he said, “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

    WTF?

    Hitlary knows it too. Here are her words as then NY senator: “The President has the solemn duty to defend our Nation. If the country is under truly imminent threat of attack, of course the President must take appropriate action to defend us. At the same time, the Constitution requires Congress to authorize war. I do not believe that the President can take military action -- including any kind of strategic bombing”.

    Again WTF?

    Don’t hold your breath for any Arab nation picking up the tab. They will probably back-peddle from their initial support and blame us when some innocents get killed.

    I wonder if resident Zero will need to return the Nobel PEACE Prize.

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  5. Update: The sand-nazis (Arab League) have begun blamming Zero for going too far claiming that this was not what they had agreed to.

    Also, as a follow-up concerning constitutionality see this from American Thinker :
    http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/obama_attacks_libya_and_wheres.html

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  6. If you are fishing for someone to defend Obama - you came to the wrong place.

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  7. Amigo,

    I know better than that.

    As you already know by now, the sand-nazis are screaming foul and Zero has proved once again that he is 100% epic fail.

    Dims are now calling for his impeachment. Too funny. We couldn't make this stuff up!!!

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  8. You know that it was a momentous mistake when loopy Rep. Ron Paul and goofy Rep Dennis Kucinich are on the same side of an issue.

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