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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: George Whorewell on March 25, 2011, 01:19:22 PM
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Professor Obama goes to war: President's deep discomfort with U.S. power hurts our chances in Libya
Charles Krauthammer
Friday, March 25th 2011, 4:00 AM
President Obama is proud of how he put together the Libyan operation. A model of international cooperation. All the necessary paperwork. Arab League backing. A Security Council resolution. (Everything but a resolution from the Congress of the United States, a minor inconvenience for a citizen of the world.) It's war as designed by an Ivy League professor.
True, it took three weeks to put this together during which time Moammar Gaddafi went from besieged, delusional (remember those youthful protesters on "hallucinogenic pills") thug losing support by the hour -- to resurgent tyrant who marshaled his forces, marched them to the gates of Benghazi and had the U.S. director of national intelligence predicting that "the regime will prevail."
But what is military initiative and opportunity compared with paper?
Well, let's see how that paper multilateralism is doing. The Arab League is already reversing itself, criticizing the use of force it had just authorized. Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, is shocked -- shocked! -- to find that people are being killed by allied airstrikes. This reaction was dubbed mystifying by one commentator, apparently born yesterday and thus unaware that the Arab League has forever been a collection of cynical, warring, unreliable dictatorships of ever-shifting loyalties. A British soccer mob has more unity and moral purpose. Yet Obama deemed it a great diplomatic success that the League deigned to permit others to fight and die to save fellow Arabs for whom 19 of 21 Arab states have yet to lift a finger.
And what about that brilliant U.N. resolution?
* Russia's Vladimir Putin is already calling the Libya operation a medieval crusade.
* China is calling for a cease-fire in place -- which would completely undermine the allied effort by leaving Gaddafi in power, his people at his mercy and the country partitioned and condemned to ongoing civil war.
* Brazil joined China in that call for a cease-fire. This just hours after Obama ended his fawning two-day Brazil visit. Another triumph of presidential personal diplomacy.
And how about NATO? Let's see. As of this writing, Britain wanted the operation to be led by NATO. France adamantly disagreed, citing Arab sensibilities. Germany wanted no part of anything, going so far as to pull four of its ships from NATO command in the Mediterranean. France and Germany walked out of a NATO meeting on Monday, while Norway had planes in Crete ready to go but refused to let them fly until it had some idea who the hell is running the operation. And Turkey, whose prime minister four months ago proudly accepted the Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, has been particularly resistant to the Libya operation from the beginning
And as for the United States, who knows what American policy is. Administration officials insist we are not trying to bring down Gaddafi, even as the president insists that he must go. Although on Tuesday Obama did add "unless he changes his approach." Approach, mind you.
In any case, for Obama, military objectives take a back seat to diplomatic appearances. The president is obsessed with pretending that we are not running the operation -- a dismaying expression of Obama's view that his country is so tainted by its various sins that it lacks the moral legitimacy to .. what? Save Third World people from massacre?
Obama seems equally obsessed with handing off the lead role. Hand off to whom? NATO? Quarrelling amid Turkish resistance (see above), NATO still can't agree on taking over command of the airstrike campaign, which is what has kept the Libyan rebels alive.
This confusion is purely the result of Obama's decision to get America into the war and then immediately relinquish American command. Never modest about himself, Obama is supremely modest about his country. America should be merely "one of the partners among many," he said Monday. No primus inter pares for him. Even the Clinton administration spoke of America as the indispensable nation. And it remains so. Yet at a time when the world is hungry for America to lead -- no one has anything near our capabilities, experience and resources -- America is led by a man determined that it should not.
A man who dithers over parchment. Who starts a war from which he wants out right away. Good God. If you go to take Vienna, take Vienna. If you're not prepared to do so, better then to stay home and do nothing.
letters@charleskrauthammer.com
Charles Krauthammer's column, which appears on Fridays, is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. Formerly a resident and then chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined The New Republic as a writer and editor in 1981. He is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and The New Republic. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Magazine Award for essays and criticism in 1984, the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1987 and the Bradley Prize in 2004.
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Obama seems equally obsessed with handing off the lead role. Hand off to whom? NATO? Quarrelling amid Turkish resistance (see above), NATO still can't agree on taking over command of the airstrike campaign, which is what has kept the Libyan rebels alive.
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Awesome article as usual from Krauthammer. Obama drones should take notice.
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Am i missing something here?
I thought the British and the French initiated the engagement in Libya?
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Krauthammer is terrific. Spot on as usual.
One of the primary reasons I voted against Obama is I didn't think he was ready to be CIC. He has certainly proved to be inept as a military leader, and the majority of the country apparently thinks so too.
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Krauthammer is terrific. Spot on as usual.
One of the primary reasons I voted against Obama is I didn't think he was ready to be CIC. He has certainly proved to be inept as a military leader, and the majority of the country apparently thinks so too.
Whats the word from the military on Obamas decisions?
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Whats the word from the military on Obamas decisions?
They originally were against it.
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Whats the word from the military on Obamas decisions?
They aren't took keen on the fact that we protecting the same asshats we have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan
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Whats the word from the military on Obamas decisions?
I don't know. Ask the military. HH6 doesn't seem too impressed.
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with all of Obama's alleged mistakes (i.e. every decision he's every made) it should be a cake walk for any Repub to defeat him in 2012
I wonder what the Repubs excuse will be when their candidate gets stomped in 2012
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we'll just have to listen to 4 more years of crying :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
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Another gem from one of the best writers around.
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with all of Obama's alleged mistakes (i.e. every decision he's every made) it should be a cake walk for any Repub to defeat him in 2012
I wonder what the Repubs excuse will be when their candidate gets stomped in 2012
Unfortunately, morons such as yourself constitute a large portion of the population and Osama's base breeds like cockroaches. By pure numbers alone that might give him a win.
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And Turkey, whose prime minister four months ago proudly accepted the Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, has been particularly resistant to the Libya operation from the beginning.
"Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights" ... awarded to the turkish PM.. ::)
I posted this a while ago, this is as ridiculous as Iran "praising" uprisings in other nations but murdering its own citizens when they do the same.
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Unfortunately, morons such as yourself constitute a large portion of the population and Osama's base breeds like cockroaches. By pure numbers alone that might give him a win.
Hacks like that are part of the 40+ percent who will vote for him no matter what.