Are We Trying To Obliterate Qaddafi -- Or Tickle Him?
I'm not for our intervention at all, despite the President's masterful sales talk about how it really is in our direct national interest to take the creep out. But, as long as we're going in, Thomas Sowell gets that we're going in all wrong. At Real Clear Politics, Sowell writes:
You don't just walk up to the local bully and slap him across the face. If you are determined to confront him, then you try to knock the living daylights out of him. Otherwise, you are better off to leave him alone.Anyone who grew up in my old neighborhood in Harlem could have told you that. But Barack Obama didn't grow up in my old neighborhood. He had a much more genteel upbringing, including a fancy private school, in Hawaii.
Maybe that is why he thinks he can launch military operations against Moammar Qaddafi, while promising not to kill him and promising that no American ground troops will be used.
It is the old liberal illusion that you can measure out force with a teaspoon, not only in military operations micro-managed by civilians in Washington, like the Vietnam war, but also in domestic confrontations when the police are trying to control a rioting mob, and are being restrained by politicians, while the mob is restrained by nobody.
We went that route in the 1960s, and the results were not inspiring, either domestically or internationally.
If I were a dictator, and you did this to me, and failed, I'd advise you to watch your back.
This is remarkable stupidity. There will be payback. I'll bet those who made this decision are not the ones who end up paying for it.
MarkD at March 30, 2011 6:10 AM
This is the legacy of this president, confusion, confusion, confusion. Just look at his own Obamacare reform. 700 plus businesses and unions made exempt as well as the entire state of Maine (up next is Kentucky). Guess it's not so great after all. Now he is dragging us into another conflict, and possibly war, so long as we don't win.
He is either a lunatic or is simply incapable of making a decision and sticking with it. We are doomed either way.....
Ed at March 30, 2011 6:30 AM
He's got the metaphor exactly backwards. Libya is the kid in class everyone knew it was okay to tease cause they knew he wasn't going to hit back. Iraq used to be that guy, but Bush actually hit him and made him cry, and everybody looked at him and thought "Oh, man you ruined it, that ain't cool".
Every so often, Clinton or whatever seated president would lob a couple cruise missiles at Libya or Iraq when they needed a bit of a bump in the polls. It made them look good, it gave America an inflated sense of importance, and nobody rally got hurt, because we didn't know who they were, and didn't see them on television.
Desert Storm was a perfect war; lots of cool explosions, and a minimum of casualties, most of them due to equipment failures. The press conferences were like a clip show - there was active laughing and murmurs of "Wow, cool" by the press corps. Go find a clip of The Luckiest Man In Iraq for a perfect example of that.
THAT'S the kind of war Obama hopes Libya. A sizzle reel that makes him (and us, of course) look good.
Like Bush the Younger before him, he's got a reason (however flimsy) to go in, but the real reason is because it's an old-time enemy (okay, irritant) of ours he thinks he can walk over to and punch and make himself look good.
The problem he's spent all his time saying he was against that. So that raises some questions, at the very least.
Vinnie Bartilucci at March 30, 2011 8:37 AM
It seems more and more apparent we are backing a rebel army that exists only in it's intentions. They have no real weapons, so we'll send them some. And a few guys to train them. And a few more guys...
Eric at March 30, 2011 8:46 AM
Yes, Thomas Sowell is a real toughie. I like macho talk from armchair academics. It's almost as endearing as the muscle-bound chatter that surfaces on blogs.
I don't know if I draw the line at Libya. But when we invade Upper Volta, or Suriname, I will step up and say our military-foreign policy-Congressional campaign donor complex has gone too far and is spending hundreds of billions, even trilliosn of taxpayer dollars wastefully.
BOTU at March 30, 2011 9:16 AM
you know how this works right? We'll bloddy his nose... then nothing will happen for a few years...
and then he will do something where we HAVE to invade.
Tinfoil Tiara's say that our leadership actually WANTS us to look bad, but they certainly NEVER learn from the past. If you are going to take someone out? Take them out...
It will be worse for you later. [See, GulfI and it's follow up, GulfII] Saddma never complied with anything the UN EVER said...
SwissArmyD at March 30, 2011 10:54 AM
Actually the correct metaphor is that Qaddafi is the bully beating up the little neighbor kid. If you decide not to let the neighbor kid deal with it and mature from that experience ... if you are determined to step in, then you must not only knock the crap out of the bully, but announce to all the other bullies that the same fate awaits them should they decide to pick on the neighbor kid. And then back that up. The trouble is that while we might be able to stop the bullies for a while, the neighbor kid is likely to resent us for doing it, and so why bother.
I'm willing to bet that the "rebels" are just another bully anxiously waiting their turn to steal the lunch money from Libyan citizens.
AllenS at March 30, 2011 1:10 PM
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