Posted on 03/02/2011 6:45:11 AM PST by rabscuttle385
(snip)
"We are spending over $500 billion dollars, not counting Iraq and Afghanistan, on our nation's defense. Don't tell me we can't do a no fly zone over Tripoli," the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services said at the Atlantic Council Tuesday evening.
"I love the military, I love it, it's been my life, but they always seem to find reasons why you can't do something rather than why you can," Sen. McCain said.
(snip)
On Libyan leader Qaddafi, McCain said, "This guy's days are numbered. The question is -- is can we shorten those number of days to save lives, to save people's lives because it's clear he's going to kill whoever he thinks he can in order to stay in power."
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at politics.blogs.foxnews.com ...
McCain’s an idiot.
Have we not frozen Colonel Bizarro’s assets? Just peel a few bills off the top and that should cover it. Keep the rest on hold to return to the Libyan people when they have a govt we like.
If you are going to topple Gaddaffy Duck-- then freakin' do it.
McCain is correct. We can cobble together a coalition so that it does not look like we’re doing this unilaterally and enforce a no fly zone. If we don’t hasten Gadaffi’s downfall, this region could continue into a civil war for a long time. That would destablize the whole region. Then when gas prices are 6 - 7 bucks a gallon and everything else related to those costs increase (food, goods shipped etc.) see if anyone’s carping about how much extra money it would have cost the military to enforce a no fly zone.
McCAIN IDIOT!
KEEP OUR SOLDIERS OUT OF THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a civil war and none of our business.
McCain is afraid that Ghaddafi will defeat the rebels and prevent the Islamic theocracy ala Iran that would follow him. Why do the statists in America want Islamic clerical tyranny in the Middle East and North Africa?
Frankly, looking at the likely rules of engagement that the socialist usurper would put on our pilots, I’m not surprised that the uniformed leadership is telling Obama they can’t do the job. While an F-14, F-15, F-16, or F-22 is quite decorative, there’s no point in decorating the sand in Libya with the wreckage of planes that weren’t allowed to defend themselves.
We create a no-fly zone and the rebels win. Who knows what kind of government they’ll create? So there’s a chance Qadaffi is overthrown and someone is put in power that is even worse and hates us even more. Just stay the heck out of it.
McCain betrays his naval background
the Navy planners are probly all excited about getting to dust off their war plans against Libya-
an easy cruise to and from safe Italian land bases for the fleet, all that MED coastline, all those easy-picking’ Soviet radar coastal targets, “Lawrence of Arabia” opportunities for the SEALs, live fire FON exercises in the Gulf of Sidra, exciting bogies with incompent pilots to splash.... and unfinished business with qadaffi
I get the uneasy feeling the Navy is almost too eager to give obama the choice of US military intervention
ooo ra
“I love the military, I love it, it’s been my life, but they always seem to find reasons why you can’t do something rather than why you can,”
... maybe that is why he loves it
Then maybe we’ll learn a lesson and either drill here or starting relying on nuclear power once and for all . . . .
McCain is a war monger. I think we should let the muzzies do their own civil war.
Shaddup Juan.
McCain said this same crap during the Kosovo debacle.
I follow KGS Nightwatch and they have some interesting observations about Libya this morning...
http://www.kforcegov.com/Services/IS/NightWatch/NightWatch_11000047.aspx
Libya: The commander of the armored vehicle and infantry division in Benghazi announced that he and the division’s troops have joined the rebels, Al Arabiya reported on 1 March. Staff Brigadier General Mansur Muhammad Abu-Hajar said he and the soldiers denounce the killing of innocents by security brigades and hired mercenaries.
Comment: This latest defection is important for showing how pockets of loyalists can remain intact and capable of operations in support of Qadhafi in areas supposedly under the control of the anti-Qadhafi rebels. This is the case in towns west of Tripoli.
The key point is that an incomplete revolution almost always devolves into a civil war or a fragmentation scenario, also called secession. The rebels in the east profess no interest in establishing a separate state. That makes them, de facto, a challenger to the regime in Tripoli, one of the parties in a civil war. The faster they organize as a functioning government, the easier it will be for sympathetic outside states to come to their aid.
Aid is clearly in order. Tripoli is the center of power in a unified Libyan state. The rebels have failed to capture it. That creates the condition for civil war. In a head to head fight with pro-government militias and mercenaries, it is not at all clear that the rebels would win at this time. They need all kinds of aid.
Having failed to capture Tripoli when the rebellion had momentum, the most urgent priority now is to consolidate, secure and defend the areas under rebellion, offering encouragement to rebels in Tripoli and the west. One news report said the Benghazi rebels were split about their strategic priorities. One group favors advancing quickly against Tripoli. Another advocates consolidation and defense of gains already made.
A premature assault on Tripoli would not be just a tactical failure. It would expose the military weakness of the rebellion. Operationally , it would present the pro-Qadhafi forces the opportunity to counter-attack in depth all the way to Benghazi, whose defense would be weakened by a failed assault on Tripoli.
The rebels lack the capability to capture Tripoli, unless Qadhafi’s guards defect or NATO intervenes. Caution mandates defense of the revolution. NATO could consider issuing a warning to Qadhafi that NATO forces will defend the Benghazi rebels against destruction by an attack from Tripoli. The NATO umbrella could also extend to towns west of Tripoli. That would at least stabilize the situaton until the next round.
The resulting Libyan state might not look like a European democracy, but the east would not be governed by a family fiefdom. No one in a generation would forget NATO coming to the aid of anti-Qadhafi, pro-democracy rebels.
Libya-China: Four Chinese military IL-76 troop transports have been sent by the government in Beijing to help complete the evacuation of Chinese workers from Libya. The aircraft flew non-stop from Urumqi in western China to Libya. Xinhua reported the arrival on 1 March of the first Il-76 in Khartoum from Tripoli, carrying 250 passengers.
Comment: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that 30,000 Chinese workers were in Libya before the start of the uprising. Of these 2,500 have returned to China; 23,000 are in third countries and 3,400 are in transit. About 29,000 have left China, cumulatively, and the Il-76s are picking up the last 1,000.
The Chinese are completing a crisis management tour de force. A frigate from China’s Somali anti-piracy patrol will arrive off Tripoli on 2 March.
For the first time, the Chinese have deployed multiple Peoples’ Liberation Army Air Force aircraft in a civilian assist role on the far side of the world. This is a significant force projection test. Moreover, the Chinese have managed to evacuate a population equivalent to a mid-size American town without incurring the ire of Qadhafi or the rebels. In the same time frame of the Chinese evacuations, the US tried to evacuate 600 people
End of NightWatch for 1 March.
He and his mafia casino backers (worried about tourism yeah) are determined to prevent use of the nuc waste storage site at Yucca Mtn, which is basically sitting there ready to go and empty
Without a national plan or depository for nuke waste, and with the anti-nuke crowd and enviros having killed off the fuel reprocessing option, nuc plants cannot be built and start operations, current sites cannot,expand or even power up beyond reduced operations most are now running
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