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Odyssey Dawn: the Obamacare of Military Operations
Jim Geraghty, "Morning Jolt" from National Review...on paper, military action to prevent a massacre and hit a dictator who has supported and ordered terror attacks against Americans in the past ought to be easy to support. But this administration manages to take even this and make it feel overcomplicated, internally divided, confused, contradictory, and emanates this aura of anxiety-inducing rhetorical muddle that suggests the folks at the top are making it up as they go along. For starters, apparently Gaddafi doesnt have to go now?...Asked by NBCs Savannah Guthrie what the U.S. commitment is in Libya if Qadhafi remains in power but continues to pose a threat to his people, Obama appeared to leave the door open for political reforms. Sure, he was talking about fighting to the last drop of blood, threatening to blow up airliners and ships in the Mediterranean, threatened to sabotage his oil fields, send droves of refugees across the Med to Europe, and pledged to wipe out those who oppose him alley by alley, road by road. But hey, guys, hes talking reforms, now! Everythings cool! I love how Hillary Clinton and Obama continually talk about Qaddafi stepping down and call on him to do so. Like thatll happen. Have they heard any of his speeches during this crisis? He sounds like a cross between primal screams and a professional wrestler taunting his opponents. If he wanted to grab his fortune and flee to the French Riviera with his voluptuous Ukrainian nurse, he could have and probably would have done so a long time ago. How many times does a guy with the nickname Mad Dog choose a quiet exit, to a retirement of luxurious seclusion? This is my new worry: Obama will realize what a complicated mess hes just charged into, realize that seeing this through would mean telling the American people things they dont want to hear and require telling his own party to grow up, and hell try to find the military equivalent of voting present. My guess is that means after a certain number of air strikes, declaring victory and ceasing military operations, declaring that cause that got us into this, protecting civilians is now the responsibility of the world community. Our allies shrug, pointing out the obvious, that they dont have the resources to continue operations anywhere near the current tempo. Most of the rest of the world yawns and turns away. Qaddafi resumes his offensive against the rebels, who start to feel like the Kurds after the Gulf War, and begin fermenting bitter anti-American feelings of betrayal as they retreat towards the Egyptian border. Oh, and then Qaddafi begins looking for payback.... Posted by: Mike 2011-03-24 |
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