Really pissant? Sarah Palin supports the Obama Doctrine? What exactly is the Obama Doctrine. .... lewislynn
To choose sides in a civil war that has nothing to do with our national security before knowing about the people you're going to replace the regime with. .... tsowellfan
Allow me to elaborate since some people are more informed about Pissant than they are about what is going on in Libya.
Obama decided that Gadhafi had to go and launched a military strike against Gadhafi, declaring that it was his intention to topple him. However, as tsowellfan said, that was "choosing sides in a civil war that has nothing to do with our national security before knowing about the people you're going to replace the regime with".
Barack Obama got into the "Let's overthrow Gadhafi" chess game without ever bothering to study what would happen beyond the first move of "Pawn to King 4".
Barack Obama had not thought out the chess game beyond the extremely naïve notion that you can:
1.) Topple Gadhafi so that
2.) America can then Cut & Run so that
3.) The Democracy Fairy can wave her Magic Wand and everybody lives happily ever after
The three major problems with that childishly naïve lunacy is that:
1.) There is no such thing as a Democarcy Fairy
2.) In all of military history, air power has never, ever, secured a single square mile of territory. To secure territorry, you need "boots on the ground". The 8th Air Force may have flattened East Berlin in World War II but East Berlin became Communist because, after the bombing, it was the Soviets with "boots on the ground" there.
3.) The one warring faction that is pouring fighters into Libya in order to have "boots on the ground" to secure the final Victory in Libya is al Qaeda. ("Thank you, U.S. air power, for giving us the future Billions of dollars of Libyan oil revenues that we will use to kill Americans!")
After his intial blunder, saner heads at the Pentagon pointed out to Obama:
"Mr. President, what about the fact that al Qaeda has been flooding Libya with radical Islamist fighters in order to be the only warring faction with the necessary "boots on the ground" to secure the final control over Libya? You specifically expect to "get out" and leave a power vacuum in Libya that al Qaeda is already mobilized to fill? It will turn over Libya and it's oil wealth over to the Islamic radicals just as surely as Jimmy Carter's blundering with another dictator turned Iran over to the Islamist fanatics."
Then, Obama realized what an idiot he has been.
"What should I do now? How can I fix this?"
"Stalemate, Mr. President. We will claim a stalemate. With Gadhafi still in power, we can use him as a proxy to keep the radical Islamists in check just like Georgw H. W. Bush used Saddam to keep the Iranian-backed, radical Islamists in southern Iraq in check in 1991 after the Gulf War."
So, the Pentagon starts making statements about "Stalemate".
This is the Charlie Foxtrot that happens when voters support a ridiculously unprepared and unqualified Affirmative Action candidate just because they absolutely adore how that candidate looks and sounds without ever bothering to figure out if that candiate would lead America into FUBAR after FUBAR through sheer ignorance and incompetence.
Many FReepers think that Obama is playing right into al Qaeda's hands because he is a secret al Qaeda supporter. However, you do not have to be a secret al Qaeda supporter to get America into such a FUBAR and hand Billions of dollars of future oil revenue over to al Qaeda.
You just have to be so utterly unqualified to be Commander-in-Chief that you actually have the extremely naïve notion that you can:
1.) Topple Gadhafi so that
2.) America can then Cut & Run so that
3.) The Democracy Fairy can wave her Magic Wand and everybody lives happily ever after
Case in point:
"So what our president said at first, that our mission is to see Qaddafi go, he's got to go, but then we're told by one of his top advisers, the president's top advisers, saying, Well, no, really, Qaddafi is probably going to prevail on this. He's probably going to prevail over the opposition. And then our president changes the tune again, saying, Well, it's not our mission to oust Qaddafi. A lot of confusion. I would like to see, of course, as long as we're in it -- we better be in it to win it. And if there's doubt, we get out. Win it means Qaddafi goes and America gets to get on out of there and let the people of Libya create their own government" .... Sarah Palin in interview with Greta van Sustern
"But, Governor Palin, what about the fact that al Qaeda has been flooding Libya with radical Islamist fighters in order to be the only warring faction with the necessary "boots on the ground" to secure the final control over Libya? You specifically expect to "get out" and leave a power vacuum in Libya that al Qaeda is already mobilized to fill? It will turn over Libya and it's oil wealth over to the Islamic radicals just as surely as Jimmy Carter's blundering with another dictator turned Iran over to the Islamist fanatics."
"Umm ... What do you mean by "boots on the ground"? What's an "Islamist"? What does al Qaeda have to do with any of this and the Democracy Fairy?"
This is a wonderful assessment. (for its brilliance, not so much for the fact that it is true - that is just depressing)
Thank you!
Our government should have stayed out of Libya. We should let the private sector handle situations like this.
The sad part is, I think Barack Obama actually thought Gadaffi was going to do exactly what the President of Egypt did. Just step down. I think Obama got so much of an ego trip by seeing Israel's only friend in the neighborhood President Mubarak step down at the mere sound of his voice that Obama got cocky and thought Gadaffi would do the same.
MISTAKE!
Anybody who knows the history of Gadaffi should know he's not going to step down like that.