Posted on 03/05/2011 10:37:47 AM PST by rabscuttle385
Washington (CNN) -- Trash talk and criticism seems the norm in these days of social networking, talk radio and cable pundits. But now it's spreading to the halls Capitol Hill and the leadership of the Department of Defense.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates may have started it when commenting on an idea for establishing a no-fly zone over Libya to protect rebel forces.
"There's a lot of, frankly, loose talk about some of these military options," Gates told a House committee on Wednesday. "Let's just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses. That's the way you do a no-fly zone."
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, has been one of the most vocal people on the Hill when it comes to supporting the idea of a no-fly zone. He responded Thursday in a Senate hearing.
"May I just say personally, I don't think it's loose talk on the part of the people on the ground in Libya, nor the Arab League nor others, including the prime minister of England, that this option should be given the strongest consideration."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Gates is right. You would think McCain would recognize the problems with poor SEAD coverage, unless he forgot how he ended up as a POW.
Parachute drop this B-turd over Libya, first!
give McCain a Vietnam era fighter, lots of bullets and bombs and let him strap up and attack the Libyans!
.............if he get’s shot down AMF !!!
Only question is what is McCain really trying to do here.
McCain is just trying to score point swhith Sean Hannity who said if he were POTUS he would bomb Libya...
Plus McCain is an idiot, but his name means idiot so I repeat myself.
The Iraqis still had SA-3s and SA-2s around Basra and Nasiriyah and some "unlocated" SA-6s floating around, but most of their stuff was north of the defended line, around Baghdad.
That would make one think that we could establish a no fly zone in Libya while leaving their air defense intact. The flip side of that argument is that the Iraqis started the Southern Watch experience with close to annihilation at the hands of the Americans. They knew from experience that pilots that went after the Americans rarely came back and missile batteries that fired at Americans got pounded.
The question would be to what extent would we need to slap around the Libyans before they decided to sit this one out. Getting the airplanes out of the picture won't be that hard, but SEAD is never a sure thing. That could be a continued struggle throughout any no-fly zone establishment.
Another option, assuming you don't see a neighbor as a threat to a weakened Libya is to simply pound the airfields for a couple days until they stop flying. Much cheaper, and possibly more effective, to either sideline or destroy all the Libyan aircraft rather than patrolling while leaving the Libya tempted to do something stupid.
One or two carrier battlegroups should do, with some tanker support out of Sicily. You might even get away with a little show of force, a phone call to the Libyan Air Force and a handful of Tomahawks.
Iraq still had air defences after Gulf War 1? I thought GHWB had wiped all that out before starting the ground war. Certainly US, or just European NATO air forces, could beat Libyan air force as is. But, unlike Gaddahfi, we value the lives on our side. We don’t want to give him a chance to get lucky and cause Western casualties. Meanwhile the MSM and the rest of the Western Left not only value the lives of Gaddahfi’s supporters more than Gaddahfi does, they value them more than the lives of ‘their own’ military. They don’t want us to hurt any of the ‘noble savages’ manning the Libyan air defences and air force. Never mind that those savages are intentionally mass murdering true innocents.
Saddam didn't give up his air-defense and USNBandit is right, where iraq would turn on the radar and the US coalition would
blow it off the face of the earth.
I should leave it to the experts, but I was just questioning Gates assertion that his was the only way.
McCain probably thinks getting shot down is a good thing, if some of the stories about his POW time are to be believed...
Which no doubt constitutes an act of war.
Great move, McQueeg. Not!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.