International Affairs: March 2011 Archives
Remember the six apoplectic years the Left spent deriding President Bush and denigrating America because of our invasion of Iraq? Well it was a scam. It is now clear that the Left and Barack Obama were throwing tantrums solely because they were out of power and not because they have any real objection to the arbitrary deployment of the American military at the complete discretion of the President.
Protesters began large, repeated, and loud protests against President Bush long before any actual military action took place. By contrast, protesters only started to complain about President Obama after the attacks had started, and they are not only few in number but scattered. International A.N.S.W.E.R. has not staged huge rent-a-mob protests in any country.When this conflict began, there were 100 protesters out front of the White House... holding a rally over the 8th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. ...
One cannot help wondering why it is that helping the people of Libya free themselves from a brutal dictator is so right that we must take military action, while freeing the people of Iraq from an even more brutal dictator who was supporting, training, and harboring terrorists was such a moral atrocity, according to President Obama.
Our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan certainly didn't go / aren't going perfectly, but I predict that Obama's adventure in Libya will make these earlier efforts look like epic wins.
The most unfortunate aspect of the Left's immaturity is that it has contributed to countless wasted lives and dollars.
I guess what I’m wondering is, how much further along would the Iraq government’s stabilization be — how much further along would the quest for democratic governance be, in the Middle East (and how much less reluctant would tyrants be to try to stop it by killing their own people), if only the Democrats hadn’t wasted 6 years politicizing our efforts and another two years bowing and scraping and restarting and gasbagging and doing everything they could to say, “we’re not Bush,” only to become all they said they hated?In the end, all the politics, all the fury and drama and rhetoric delayed an inevitable desire and movement toward liberty, and perhaps costs lives.
In an era of record-breaking government spending and clear wastefulness, perhaps the past 8 years of politically-expedient dissent has been costliest waste of all.
Remember: the anti-war protests of the Left were completely insincere.
These quotes from Secretary Clinton make it sound like we're playing games in Libya.
The White House strongly denied that regime change is part of its mission after a statement earlier in the day characterized the goal there as “installing a democratic system.”Separately, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton struggled to respond to questions from ABC’s Diane Sawyer over whether the U.S. operation would be a success if Col. Moammar Gadhafi remains in power.
Clinton said the United Nations resolution authorizing force against Gadhafi was broad, but included nothing “about getting rid of anybody.”
At the same time, Clinton said it is “highly unlikely” a stable and peaceful Libya can be established with Gadhafi in power. She also said the U.S. mission was intended to give insurgents fighting Gadhafi a “level playing field” and a “much better chance” at toppling the dictator.
So we want Gadhafi out, we want the rebels to oust him, but we're only willing to offer just enough help to make it an even fight. Who the hell wants to fight fair? What are our leaders thinking?
If these accusations against a US army "kill team" are true then the people involved should be executed.
Some of the activities of the self-styled "kill team" are already public, with 12 men currently on trial in Seattle for their role in the killing of three civilians.Five of the soldiers are on trial for pre-meditated murder, after they staged killings to make it look like they were defending themselves from Taliban attacks.
I don't believe these alleged actions are representative of our military people as a whole. I'm sure that the vast majority of Americans would be disgusted by these cold-blooded murders.
Strategy Page has an insightful and detailed description of Saudi military culture.
While the thousands of aircraft, helicopters, armored vehicles and other high-tech systems Saudi Arabia has bought in the last decade look impressive, the actual impact of all this lethal hardware depends a lot on the skill of those using it. In this department, the Saudis have some serious problems. And it is generally very difficult to get Saudis to even discuss the situation.Examples are widely available, and seen daily by the thousands of Western technicians, specialists and trainers hired by Saudi Arabia to keep their high-tech gear operational. For example, Saudis, and Arabs in general, don't care for the Western custom of establishing minimum standards for, say, fighter pilots. It's long been known that it is very difficult to wash out a Saudi pilot who is well connected (especially a member of the huge royal family). There are some very good Saudi pilots, but they are a minority. The rest get by. As long as they can take off and land, they can stay in a squadron. During combat exercises, especially with American squadrons, it's understood that the low overall performance of Saudi pilots is not to be discussed with the Saudis, or anyone else. Junior American officers get irked by this, but it's career suicide to disobey orders on this point. The Saudis do spend a lot of money on training and letting the pilots fly. For this reason, they are considered marginally better than other Arab air forces. But against the Iranians, who more enthusiastically accepted Western training methods, they would have problems. Iranian aircraft are older and less well equipped, but pilot quality would make up for a lot of that.
SP is always a great read.
President Obama has ordered combat operations to remove Gaddafi from power in Libya. Does this mean the vindication of President Bush is complete?
[Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton said earlier the immediate goal was stopping violence against civilians but the long-term objective was to see Gaddafi depart, although Obama himself did not mention this in his remarks."The first and overwhelmingly urgent action is to end the violence," she said, saying "a final result of any negotiations would have to be the decision by Colonel Gaddafi to leave."
Guantanamo: still open, with expanded military tribunals.
Predator strikes in AfPak: higher rate than ever.
Troops in Afghanistan: “Afghan forces in the lead throughout the country by 2014,” says General David Petraeus.
Patriot Act: Obama wants to keep all the provisions and extend it longer than Congressional Republicans.
Update:
France and Britain take the lead in Libya. Obama is lucky that this crisis is within range of Europe's ground-based aircraft. (Since European nations don't have the ability to project power substantially beyond their borders without American assistance.)
Charlie Martin has the best explanation I've yet read about the Fukushima reactor meltdown. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the media is over-hyping the danger. Martin does a great job explaining the processes going on in and around the reactor, as well as highlighting the anti-nuclear agenda of many of the "nuclear power experts" that the media is running to for analysis.
Note: don't interpret my anti-sensationalism as a complete pass for the nuclear industry. It's pretty foolish to put a nuclear plant right near the ocean without sufficiently protecting the coolant supply from contamination by tsunami.
