[QUOTE=Magiver]
NATO=America when it comes to the coordination of the group. Gaddafi’s army is an easy target for NATO forces. It’s fucked up because that leadership is missing.
[/QUOTE]
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but hasn’t the US stepped back from a lead role in all this? I could have swore I read that the US had pretty much moved into the background, and that this was now (and has been for a while) basically a NATO lead (read: non-US) effort.
-XT
I would hope you realize that Drudge’s page is basically just a link source to other news outlets. Rare that they publish their own story
“Things that might happen” are not “outcomes”.
that would be the point of my post. We moved into the background and it immediately fell apart. The direction of this falls on the President Obama as Commander in chief.
The things happening now is a military campaign so poorly coordinated that the people we’re trying to help no longer want it. There is a lack of leadership in this venture.
That we are involved at all is an indictment of Obama as Commander in Chief.
Yeah! Obama’s an asshole for getting us involved; and doubly an asshole for not getting us involved enough!
If you volunteer to help with the Titanic disaster and you repeatedly run over the survivors with a speedboat without picking them up then it’s hard to take credit for a successful rescue.
To do this right involves inserting a forward group in the affected area to establish communication/coordination as well as direct incoming munitions. It’s pointless to fling 1.3 million dollar missiles at a 4th world dictator and then pick at it willy nilly.
Yeeeehaaaa! How about napalm? Can we drop some of that too, because that shit is cool. Just think, in a couple of months we can start stacking up naked brown people again and all will be right in the world.
I am confused…our great leader said (in his war speech) that Ghadafi’s fall was to be “in days , not weeks”.
How did we go wrong?
Is the Libyan Adventure actually going to be anothern costly, open ended war?
You went wrong. He didn’t say that the fall would be in “days, not weeks.” He said our role in the bombing would last that long, before changing to a supporting role.
Is it really a quagmire if no US troops are fighting and dying?
Why, it’s just like Iraq!
Can’t Obama seek outlets for his bloodlust by killing hobos and hookers like the rest of us? I have to admit though that calling it a “kinetic action” instead of war is an all time classic. This lawsuit probably won’t do anything, but it’s better than nothing I guess.
Shades of Clinton’s, “What is is”
I suppose “it’s not hostilities its armed drones killing people,” is marginally better than “it’s not torture it’s enhanced interrogation,” but both are euphemisms to avoid the law. I wouldn’t want the GOP Congress fucking up my war in an election year either, but thems the breaks.
No.
So ralph124c - when exactly are Russia and China going to start bombing us? You seemed very sure of this in your OP.
Well, Ghadafi has proven resilient. This sggests two things:
-he has a lot more military eqipment than we thought
-he has access to cash-either he is shipping oil, or has access to bank acconts
So, if this thing drags on for years, what will Obama do?
I think it will end badly.
Ghadafi has proved stubborn (and, to some extent, lucky). He does have the army on his side (unlike in Egypt) and (also unlike Egypt) he’s determined to stay in power until someone kills him. In the short term that’s a viable strategy but unless the opposition forces (including foreign forces) let up, it’s suicidal in the long term. I don’t think this can drag on for years, at least not in its current form. And what Obama does depends on what this becomes.
I’m sure Ghadafi has secret stashes of money but interestingly it’s the rebels who are currently selling oil (via Qatar IIRC). They’re also more organized now, with a better-defined command structure.
Will this end badly? War rarely ends well. Even if Ghadafi slips on the soap and dies tonight there will still be thousands dead, infrastructure destroyed, a power vacuum and huge amount of constitutional reform to do, and general chaos and confusion. No one can afford a Marshall Plan-style reconstruction even if one were welcome, and the ownership of the oil infrastructure is going to be unsettled for a long time.
So Libya is a mess and is going to remain a mess for a long time. What has failed to be demonstrated is that the US involvement has made it more so - I would argue that it has actually helped - and whether it was worth it, which only time will tell.
He has to fight members of his own party on this.
We can’t say the W word. Obama just said he doesn’t have to ask Congress to continue this adventure…nor does he plan on telling us what its costing him.
I wish our spineless Congress would blast him for this.
edit: linky