Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Shores of Tripoli: Our Latest Wilsonian War (Good Read)
The American Interest ^ | 3/30/2011 | Walter Russell Mead

Posted on 03/31/2011 11:20:37 AM PDT by mojito

It’s still much too soon to tell how America’s Libya liberation venture will work out. The international coalition is shaky; the UN mandate is dubious; air power has frequently disappointed those who trusted that it alone can win wars; political support in the US is shaky; the Great Loon of Libya, a statesman in the hallowed tradition of Idi Amin, is as cunning as he is daffy; Libya’s fragile unity may crumble as the tribes and clans turn on one another; the rebels are poorly armed and poorly organized; some of them may in fact be experienced international terrorists.

For the record, I hope it all works out. I want the government to fall, the Great Loon to flap away into inglorious exile somewhere dismal and dull, and I want the rebels, with help from NATO and the Arab League, to set up a workable government that gives Libya’s people a chance to reinvent their country and spreads the oil wealth around. (I would also like a pony.) I think we are out on a limb here and I wish the president had found the time to get some congressional backing up front, but we are where we are and the best we can do now is to muddle on through.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.the-american-interest.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; Russia; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: libya; obama
Nice synopis, and some interesting insights.
1 posted on 03/31/2011 11:20:40 AM PDT by mojito
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: mojito

Isn’t it amazing how those first fake reports said the tribes were backing the ragtag rebels. Seems the truth is that the tribes want no part of AQ, and we are killing the wrong people.


2 posted on 03/31/2011 11:26:35 AM PDT by org.whodat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mojito
From a West Point study of jihadists in Iraq:

A breakout of the hometowns of Libyan jihadists who showed up in Iraq:

Note that the 84% of the jihadists came from Darnah and Benghazi, both rebel strongholds that were (as pointed out in the West Point study) previously the scene of Islamist uprisings in the mid-1990's.

3 posted on 03/31/2011 11:30:10 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: org.whodat

The message to all third world powers, you are only safe with your finger on a nuclear weapon and a dead man firing switch. It is a brave new world. OBummer you are a fool.


4 posted on 03/31/2011 11:31:15 AM PDT by org.whodat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: org.whodat

You mean to tell me that the WH and the CIA got the internal politics of a place they know almost nothing about, and care about even less, completely wrong?

I’m shocked, I tell ya.


5 posted on 03/31/2011 11:33:37 AM PDT by mojito
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei
Please stop. The WH does not have time for your facts.

The President is too busy posing for photos this afternoon. Later, he'll be tied up in an interview with Dana Millbank, talking about the heavy burdens he carries as the greatest upholder of global humanitarianism ever.

6 posted on 03/31/2011 11:38:37 AM PDT by mojito
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: mojito
The cautious Jeffersonian realists have lost one policy battle after another in this administration. Colin Powell... has been cast to the winds.

Colin Powell. ( snicker )

7 posted on 03/31/2011 12:07:29 PM PDT by Leisler (Our debts are someone's profit. Follow the money, the vig.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mojito

If they just flipped a coin for decision making, they’d triple their success rate.


8 posted on 03/31/2011 12:10:05 PM PDT by Leisler (Our debts are someone's profit. Follow the money, the vig.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: org.whodat; mojito

We’re not killing the “rebels.” They’re on the side of AQ, so in Obama’s book, they’re the good guys.


9 posted on 03/31/2011 12:54:23 PM PDT by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: mojito

Thanks for the editorial sidebar checkoff!


10 posted on 03/31/2011 6:00:26 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson