Comments on: Meanwhile, remember Libya?

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:44:24 +0000

President to ESPN reporter: Hey, check out my March madness picks! Oh and by the way, while they're filling out their brackets Americans should think about helping the Japanese. And this is on the White House blog!

By: A_Nonny_Mouse

A_Nonny_Mouse — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:45:13 +0000

Perhaps that our Great Intellectual President has taken to heart those immortal words “They also serve who only sit and wait”

By: Mike Mc

Mike Mc — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 21:53:34 +0000

Mrs. Whatsit,
How is it possible we elected him? Still astounds me. If we give him another term it means we have given up on “America”.

By: Parker

Parker — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:32:57 +0000

Henry Bowman says,

“… much of what happens in the Middle East is related to tribalism rather than nationalism.”

Very true, and germane to most of sub saharan Africa and elsewhere on the planet.

By: Daniel in Brookline

Daniel in Brookline — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:50:41 +0000

For President Obama not to know how Libya will turn out is fine; nobody knows how it will turn out. For him to therefore be reluctant to choose sides is understandable.

For him to shy away from enforcing a no-fly zone, so that Qaddafi cannot send gunships on strafing runs against civilians, seems to me morally repugnant — but, as others have pointed out above, it’s at least a defensible position.

On the other hand, having watched him sit on his hands as civilians are mowed down, I don’t want to hear ONE BLESSED WORD from him on how awful it is that Israelis are… building houses.

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline

By: Mrs Whatsit

Mrs Whatsit — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:34:41 +0000

While Libya burns, Japan collapses, and the budget remains an unmitigated mess, what does Obama do? He plays 18 holes of golf, picks his NCAA brackets, makes speeches on education reform and sex discrimination, and attends a fundraiser for his 2012 campaign. How is it possible that after more than two years in the Presidency he still fails to understand that he should, at least, PRETEND that he cares?

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/262148/while-japan-burns-obama-fills-out-his-bracket

By: Henry Bowman

Henry Bowman — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:17:15 +0000

Gaddafi is certainly a brutal fellow whose country resembles Stalin's Soviet Union in some ways, at least according to Michael Totten. But I doubt that Gaddafi thinks he is killing "his people". Those rebelling seem to come from the eastern portion of Libya and are from different tribes that of Gaddafi. Similarly, when Saddam Hussein killed Kurds or the marsh Arabs (who were nearly all Shiite), he didn't consider them "his people": they were enemies from other tribes who had to be crushed. I point this out mostly because I don't think that enough westerners really understand that much of what happens in the Middle East is related to tribalism rather than nationalism.

By: Parker

Parker — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:15:30 +0000

The question that has (or should) be asked is what do we gain by intervening? I doubt there is an upside to intervention. As Neo quoted above, we don’t know what the rebels want. It may be that they don’t really know what they want, but intervention is often like opening Pandora’s box. If you are not willing to take it all they way, don’t take it part of the way. All the way IMO means we conquer and then impose a system of government and occupy Libya for 10+ years to make sure it sticks. I don’t think we’re ready to do that. We haven’t done it in Iraq or Afghanistan.

My problem with Mr. O’s words (there have been no actions) is similar to Richard Aubrey, he doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. Its important to remember that from Obama’s POV everything must be about how wonderful Obama is, otherwise its a waste of his time when he could be flying around on air force 1 or playing golf.

By: JTW

JTW — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:12:54 +0000

Libya is at the moment a shining light in the fight against the spread of the muslim brotherhood, al qaeda, and taliban style islamic supremacist rule.
If it falls, we’ll have those guys in power from the atlantic ocean to the persian gulf, a taliban style state larger than the USA, larger than the EU, and in control of most of the world’s strategic oil reserves as well as the Suez canal and straits of Gibraltar.

I applaud Khadaffi for not folding, for doing everything needed to suppress these “revolutionaries” who are really al qaeda stooges just as they are in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:52:41 +0000

Libya reminds me of Hungary in 1956. The USA, especially via Radio Free Europe, had encouraged the Hungarian uprising against the 8 year-old Communist regime, but did nothing when the Soviet troops and tanks came in. I was then what the MSM today terms a youth, excitedly told my mother that, Wow!, this might mean the end of the Iron Curtain, but she just shook her head without otherwise showing her cynicism.

The entire population of Libya is only 6M. If we can’t take on the Libyan air defense and air force, we can’t do squat. Baraq+Gates+Hillary: three of a kind. Three zeros.