Qaddafi’s death is a victory for the Libyan people, first and foremost. They have freed themselves from a bizarre dictator who abused his people and the great natural wealth of their land. But it is also an important advance for the U.S. and its allies. They have removed an authoritarian dictator who had launched terrorist attacks against U.S. servicemen and U.S. civilian airliners. He was a threat to destabilize the region and was only convinced to give up his nuclear-weapons programs by the example set by the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
And I think we should give President Obama at least partial credit for leading American intervention. For very little cost, the U.S. succeeded in removing one of its long-term foes. He properly used the powers of his office to protect our national security and advance American foreign policy goals while Congress did little to nothing. He should receive bipartisan support for a rare success in his foreign policy.
But Obama does not get full credit, I think, because he took so long to intervene. Recall that the U.S. intervened only after the U.N. Security Council approved intervention. Obama chose to wait until Qaddafi had driven the rebels into a last holdout in Benghazi. He chose to restrain our operations along the lines set out by the Security Council, which forbade ground troops. This prolonged the ouster of Qaddafi into a full-blown civil war and resulted in more disintegration of the nation’s institutions than was necessary. To the extent that it is harder to get a new government to stand up and to collect and control Libya’s arms, part of the blame must also go to Obama’s delay because of his undue sensitivity to foreign opinion and the U.N.
On queue, as expected.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's all Obama's fault.
Do you even bother to read the articles before responding?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe ouster of Khaddafy will only be a victory if the govt that follows winds up being better than his.
Given the cast of characters involved, I seriously doubt that will happen.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBoy, that had to hurt to write words of praise for Obama. I can feel the pain in your typing finger.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"For very little cost, the U.S. succeeded in removing one of its long-term foes."
That's the key. That should be our goal as a country. Removing our foes for little cost. If Libya ends up like....well, Libya of 5 years ago in 10, 20, 30 or 40 years, then we do the exact same thing. For very little cost, we remove our foe.
Imagine if this was our approach and Afghanistan and Iraq....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor this to be our approach in Afghanistan, we'd have had to not have been attacked first, there would have to have been an indigenous resistance that had been inspired by a prior example (Iraq, in the case of the Arab Spring), NATO would have had to have an interest in doing something in Afghanistan against a tyranny... In short, conditions that did not obtain, would have had to obtain. In Iraq, we'd have had to have UN cooperation from nations patently corrupted by their dealings with the dictator (France, Russia, Germany, others), with NATO having a will to attack. In short, none of that or any other conditions obtained.
Afghanistan didn't matter to anyone until it mattered to the US because its regime aided a direct attack on the US. Iraq's Hussein had bought off most of NATO and had friends in Russia and China.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAlso, keep in mind that we defeated him without one US death. There were 0 US deaths in defeating Qaddafi. On what grounds can we criticize this approach?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusewaste of our time
nothing will change
these people are another species
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"This prolonged the ouster of Qaddafi into a full-blown civil war and resulted in more disintegration of the nation’s institutions than was necessary."
Wait, what? The "sudden" ousters of S.Hussein and the Taliban shows there is no such causality here. These nations have institutions that were as corrupt as their leaders. The disintegration (and on-going civil wars) show that nation building is a fool's errand, most especially if the U.S. is footing the bill. Ousting these dictators for $1 Billion rather then $1 Trillion should be cherished by conservatives of all stripes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDo we know that Obama is through in Libya and Egypt? These won't cost us anything from here on in? If so, hooray. I just doubt it. Not with Blacks being persecuted by the Libyans who are forming a strong alliance with the evil Sudanese.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDays not weeks.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe world is rid of another violent tyrant and President Obama is due some credit for that. Of course, even if he weren't due any of the credit, he would take all or most of the credit. As one enemy after another is executed, with Obama leading the charge, the reality of being President collides with rhetoric of being a candidate. What happened to the anti-torture, we-are-a-nation-of-laws guy who wanted to read our enemies their Miranda rights and try them in our courts? Where is the guy who will prosecute intelligence agents who use sleep deprivation and loud music as interrogation tools? What happened to our compassionate Nobel Peace Prize winner who believes terrorists have a legitimate point to make? Surely, aliens kidnapped him and replaced him with a guy who looks like Barack Obama, but has the heart and soul of Dick Cheney.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJenna: Never able to give credit without a peevish "he'd take credit for it even if it weren't deserved" comment, huh?
At least the demise of Qadhaffi and bin Laden didn't cost the vast amounts in life and treasure that the US spent in Iraq, which now has a flourishing, corrupt and inefficient government and has become more friendly territory for Iran.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYeah, instead we have a Libya in chaos, potentially loose chemical weapons, and Islamists who now that the no longer need weapons to kill Qaddafi can ship them to Gaza. Oh, and possible a civil war, more war crimes and ethnic cleansing because the Libyans hate black Africans in thei midst. Cool beans, I'm sure they've got a James Madison type waiting in the wings...
No wonder Jews are terrified of Obama policy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAll I can say is, thank god we have a Nobel Peace Prize winner in the White House!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe most amazing thing about the peace prize was his speech where he described that war is sometimes necessary -- I'll leave it to the intelligence of the reader to figure out if that was a good or a bad thing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"the U.N. Security Council approved intervention"...that is a convenient omission of an important fact: The U.N. approved the establishment of a no fly zone to prevent a civilian humanitarian disaster. It expressly did not approve regime change, or what now appears to be the extra-judicial execution of a war criminal by frenzied "rebels".
That's a pretty stunning and brazen rewrite of history on the part of the "victors".
Good riddance to Qaddafi. And welcome to a new era of American foreign policy where lies and deceit are perfectly okay, as long as A) a Democrat president does it and B) certain conservative journals agree to play along. 2012 is going to be an interesting election.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBtw, by "extra judicial execution of a war criminal" I also meant the "extra judicial execution of an unarmed war criminal who was taking prisoner".
Go Obama! Whatch' gonna do when he comes for you?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"where lies and deceit are perfectly okay"
You must not be familiar with U.S. history. Iraq part 2 was hardly a lesson in truth telling. There's also Iran-Contra, almost all of South America, our support for the Taliban against the Soviets, etc, etc, etc.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLook, at least show a little respect for the truth. There was no lying on the way into Iraq. And there was no Taliban in existence to fight against the Soviets. I know these patent falsehoods are standard in leftist rhetoric, but they don't work where people are familiar with facts. Lies and deceit indeed.
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