As Dan Foster notes below, we now learn that two to three weeks ago the president signed off on a finding authorizing covert support for the Libyan rebels, potentially including cash and weapons. Yet his Secretary of State concedes that precisely who the rebels are was still a mystery to the administration as late as yesterday.
The president — apparently taking his cue from Nancy Pelosi – believes that we have to arm the rebels so we can find out who they are.
Not only Libya, but this whole Mid East turmoil is turning into a tragic opera! However, rather than being well scripted like Verdi's opera Macbeth, this one appears to be written by Homer Simpson with Obama, Hillary, and their band of incompetents in the lead roles. None who can sing, or even get on and off the stage without falling down!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnfortunately far too many supposed conservatives -- McCain, Graham, Rubio, Bill Kristol and the NRO editors among others -- share the Obama view that we need to commit our military to combat first, then try to figure out who it is we're helping and what exactly we're doing later.
May God preserve our country from this madness.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf you give a stranger a gun and he doesn't shoot you, then he might be a good guy!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The president — apparently taking his cue from Nancy Pelosi – believes that we have to arm the rebels so we can find out who they are."
Isn't that what the ATF is doing in Mexico?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, here we are, again!
Doctrinal, mud-covered Conservatives missing the alleged splendor of the forest of righteous motivations as a result of our attention to the details of the evil trees that the forest rangers demand we uproot.
See, when a military mission is undertaken SOLELY for humanitarian reasons, then there is no argument against it. The motivation to "help" and to "do SOMETHING" overtakes all reason.
One only wishes that the advocates of purely humanitarian military interventions could take a deep-enough breath long enough to ponder that their efforts may actually promulgate a worsening of the very crisis they feel so glorified to arrest.
This is the same, tired means/ends conflation that we see play out on the political left with almost every issue - education, welfare, health insurance, affordable housing, energy, etc.
What an abject waste of time for some conservatives now to compel the necessity to have this conversation with them, too!
B-T-dub: Has anyone seen a glimpse of Mikey B lately? Where, Oh Where, could he be? You don't think he opted for a "quick" tour through Libya, hmmm?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe need Team Bartowski in there vetting the rebels. If it all goes to hell, Casey and Walker can go in and take out Khadafy on their own.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA few things we know about the rebels:
*They are Arab Muslims who grew up in an anti-Western terrorist state.
*They grew up steeped in hatred of the kaffir in general and Americans and Jews in particular.
*They hate America, the West, Jews, Israel, and kaffir.
*They hate women -- rebel men and their women as well: all of them hate women.
*They see the murder of innocent kaffir as blessed by their god.
*They will deny all of the above in the company of any kaffir, and they will endorse all of the above in the company of any kaffir.
What's to investigate? Sec. Clinton and President Obama already know these things.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOops: that last bullet point was supposed to say "they will endorse all of the above in the company of any Muslim brother."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhile CIA competence has fallen to new lows of late, who really believes:
"Yet his Secretary of State concedes that precisely who the rebels are was still a mystery to the administration as late as yesterday."
The CIA has interacted extensively in recent years with jihadis of particular stripes. We have to assume they made fulls reports about who these people are long before the bombing began. If the rebels could have passed even for mild authoritarians, Sec. Clinton and her subordinate President Obama would have passed this along to us. My guess is the Obama Administration knows full well the rebels are comprised, at a minimum in part, of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Muslim Brotherhood elements. The political reality is that the Administration knew this information would inflame the public and their representatives in Congress. In other words, Clinton and Obama are lying.
As I watch Sec. Gates, widely regarded as a decent and competent person, he seems on the verge of blurting out something. My guess is he will.
The composition of these rebels, and Administration dissembling about who they are, raises some larger and darker questions than we merely made a blunder.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe are currently governed by a group whose mindset includes, "America is to blame," "You mustn't examine the backgrounds or statements of others else you might be a bigot," and "Credentials Uber Alles." So, given that Obama et al. have "discovered" that some of the Libyan rebels have degrees or professional certifications that make them comfortable, whether they are Jihadists and whether they want to destroy the US or Western Civilization are matters to be ignored as trivial and only of concern to the less enlightened.
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