Libya
Good bye Qadaffi or Gaddafi, or however the hell you spell his name. Whether or not you think it was a good idea for the U.S. to get involved in the Libyan Civil War via the NATO airstrikes, you have to give credit to President Obama and his team. He took the risk, got criticized on the left and right for it (thoughtful criticism on the left, mindless opposition on the right), and just as with the mission to get Bin Laden, now that that intervention seems to be successful with the fall of the Gaddafi regime, he deserves credit.
I look forward to seeing the Republicans who opposed this intervention to now blame Obama for its success, or to try to take credit for it themselves.
Watch it live on Sky News, because Brit news services are always so much better than American ones. Hell, if you watch MSNBC right now, you would have no idea any of this is going on.
Much Better: (less Murdoch-like influence) is Al Jazeera English… Which due to lack of corporate influence, is probably the best source of raw data in the world….
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
I’m calling it that Omar goes out like Hitler….. Especially having seen Mubarak this past week.
Like Hitler or like Saddam Hussein’s sons, in a firefight while holed up in his compound. Although, his trial would make Saddam’s look like a PBS function.
I tried AJE earlier, and couldn’t get the live stream to work.
While President Obama did the right thing when it comes to Libya, if he had acted three weeks earlier, it would probably have cost a lot less in blood and treasure to get rid of Colonel Qaddafi.
Kavips noted that Colonel Qaddafi has seen what happened to Hosni Mubarak; had President Obama imposed the no-fly zone that even the Libyan deputy permanent representative to the UN asked for in mid February, when the rebels were already in Tripoli, perhaps Col Qaddafi would have stepped down and gone into exile then. Now, he knows that he has no choice: he has to fight to the death.
Poor Khaddaffi, his Eva Braun has fled.
I guess he burns alone Kavips.
Dana is a shameful partisan shill, as usual. Republicans can’t stand to give this President credit for anything. Pathetic.
is the argument that President Obama has violated the War Powers Act weak? I haven’t researched it, but on the surface it seems like such a protracted engagement (unlike Reagan’s Granada ‘invasion’) should have come to Congress for a vote.
It certainly appears that if W had done what Obama has done in Libya, we would have raised an alarm (of course W would have taken four years and gotten no-where).
I would like to know that liberals are consistent, before we celebrate this apparent good result.
If Bush gets a pass, Obama gets a pass. If you don’t like it then reform the War Powers Act (my preferred path).
I don’t see Republicans seriously going after Obama for this. No way do they want to make a precedent for any restrictions on Presidential CINC powers. They’d rather keep it bubbling along as a whisper campaign.
Because American involvement is (now) limited to logistics and support, and we have no troops on the ground, it’s difficult to see where the War Powers Act would apply.
Puck wrote:
President Bush adhered to the provisions of the War Powers Act — even though he, and every President since it was passed has held it to be unconstitutional — and sought and received Congressional authorization for both Afghanistan and Iraq. President Obama said that Congressional authorization was not required, and never sought it.
congressional authorization would still be in the 4th month of bumper-sticker debate process if he had sought it.
“congressional authorization would still be in the 4th month of bumper-sticker debate process if he had sought it.”
And that is a bad thing… how? If Congress can’t agree to send the troops, maybe they shouldn’t be sent.
if congress cant agree to send troops because of genuine concern about the merits and pros vs cons, that is one thing.
THIS teabag filled congress only makes decisions based on what hurts the president with no regard for it’s consequences.
Totalitarian Ben wrote:
Does that matter? The members of Congress were freely elected by the people as their legal Representatives. Are you suggesting that the decisions (or indecisions) of Congress can or should be simply overridden just because you don’t like them?
While dumbass Republican fuckface jerks like Dana don’t think Obama did enough to get rid of Qadaffi, Libyans are thanking him.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/08/22/300927/photos-libyans-applaud-president-obama-and-international-allies-with-large-thank-you-sign/
Dana’s just upset that Obama, like Ronald Reagan, picked out a foreign country we could defeat in an armed conflict.
No, Dana supported President Obama’s actions; he just thinks it would have been done better if he had proceeded three weeks earlier, when a no-fly zone was first requested, and Colonel Qaddafi’s forces were reeling in defeat. By delaying three weeks, the government was able to bring in mercenaries and push the rebels back. Due to the delay, more than a no fly zone was needed: NATO had to provide aerial bombardment support to the rebels to enable them to turn the tide.
Had President Obama acted three weeks earlier, it is probable — no one can say for certain — that Colonel Qaddafi would have been unseated last March, and there would have been a lot less blood spilled and treasure wasted.
Fuckface, Libyans don’t share your hypothetical regrets. Probably because your regrets are transparently rooted in hating the President.
“
That’s how you do it.
Fred Kaplan, who unlike Dana, knows the situation, explains:
http://www.slate.com/id/2302124/
Bush and Condi’s love for Gaddafi:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1194766,00.html
A bit more context:
http://www.juancole.com/2011/08/top-ten-myths-about-the-libya-war.html
Dana problem is that neither Bush or Cheney has accomplished in the world arena of conflict what our Commander in Chief has a Three baggier so far. First with the killing and capture of the Pirates on the high seas. Second the daring raid which led to the demise of OBL and last but not lease the over throwing of a brutal Dictator. All without fan fair ( liking landing on a air Craft carrier while having the camera placed so the shore line was not visible to pretend it was far out to sea instead of a few miles off the California coast like Bush. And Obama did all this while defending himself from the birthers and the do nothing Repuk congress. And need I mention that all this was done without the loss of one American serviceman.