An interesting bit with this is how Gadaffi seems to have dropped the ball initially. I was very surprised that he didn't actually follow up the announced cease fire with an actual cease fire. That may be because the wording of the UN initiative is such that it couldn't have stopped the attacks. The talk that 'not being a threat to civilians' includes fully reconnecting their water, electricity and broadband access suggests that maybe he figured merely not attacking them wouldn't be sufficient.
I expected his course, and again, maybe he just doesn't have the strength to make this happen, would have been to sit back and agree to the cease fire, then watch the massed forces be torn apart by public opinion back at home. Offer up an election, fill the ballot boxes and see what happens from there.
Personally I think the most reprehensible part of this so far is China and Russia abstaining and then Russia fanning the flames with its post attack rhetoric.
Russia and China typically block any UN intervention. If one accepts that they are sometimes necessary, their move to the abstain-and-complain model actually represents an advance.
In this instance, Gadaffi clearly triggered the "egregious motherfucker" exception.
Put me down with the neocons and pro-military tendents. Putting Khadafy in the ground has been an American interest since 1980. While I could carp all day about the remarkably louche manner in which President Obama has launched this war (compared to the thing of beauty that is his secret war in Yemen), I'm in it to win it and I hope and believe that he will be, too.
I had not been up on the administrator's secret war in Yemen, thanks.
Now that I look at it, I am gratified that it clearly falls under the AUMF and is also clearly being undertaken with the support of Yemen's public government. Probably why it's so quiet.
I wish we could just get out of the Middle East completely, but that's not going to happen as long as oil is there. If Darfur had oil, you can bet we'd have been there years ago.
You very aptly summed up my thoughts on this. I'll add that I think it's funny whenever Boehner or any other hardline Republican admonishes Obama for "invading a sovereign country." Really? Really? (Read those exact words on Politico yesterday.)
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I wonder if Manuel Noriega needs ousting again by chance...
-The Gneech
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I expected his course, and again, maybe he just doesn't have the strength to make this happen, would have been to sit back and agree to the cease fire, then watch the massed forces be torn apart by public opinion back at home. Offer up an election, fill the ballot boxes and see what happens from there.
Personally I think the most reprehensible part of this so far is China and Russia abstaining and then Russia fanning the flames with its post attack rhetoric.
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In this instance, Gadaffi clearly triggered the "egregious motherfucker" exception.
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Now that I look at it, I am gratified that it clearly falls under the AUMF and is also clearly being undertaken with the support of Yemen's public government. Probably why it's so quiet.
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You very aptly summed up my thoughts on this. I'll add that I think it's funny whenever Boehner or any other hardline Republican admonishes Obama for
"invading a sovereign country." Really? Really? (Read those exact words on Politico yesterday.)
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