George Rebane
President Obama has made it clear that he wants the Arabs to view the US as being just one of the boys the UN mustered to take on Moammar Gadhafi. Not only that, but we’re in the back of the pack somewhere right behind the French, Brits, and Italians. That is our new inclusive and multi-lateral ‘by your leave’ foreign policy. Of course, no Arab in his most charitable moment believes that; Obama’s audience is the addled of America.
Obama has skillfully(?) created a power vacuum in the Mediterranean for others to fill. And they have put on a mighty charade to do so. The French even had one of their jets draw first blood, and the British are there with their handful of fighters (but they couldn’t muster their carrier to make it, even though it would have been a tremendous opportunity for some in theater training). Actually, nothing would successfully move toward the Libyan beach without America’s presence and support.
One of our eleven carrier task groups led by CVN USS Enterprise is operating off Libyan shores, along with the amphibious warfare group centered on the large deck USS Kearsarge assault carrier. Two of our Tomahawk capable nuclear subs are also in theater. And of the 124 Tomahawks fired so far, 122 were launched from US Navy ships. But we do hear that the French, and maybe the Brits, are doing some independent targeting for political purposes. This may explain tonight’s report of Moammar’s Tripoli compound coming under missile attack – an attack that the Pentagon denied having any part in .
Obama’s strategy seems to have been to get there at the last possible moment after making sure that 1) “pivotal statements” had been issued by the Arab League (who are now busy retracting them), 2) the UN Security Council had wordsmithed a resolution, and 3) our European friends were already there with their dozen jets. All this was to confirm in the world’s mind that this participation was “not in America’s interests”, but merely to do the right thing for the Libyan people within the imprimatur of the international community. And maybe, just maybe, that’s actually what our commander-in-chief was really thinking (Lord save us all).
While all this is going on, we have reporters who still don’t know any basics of modern warfare delivering silly reports from the balconies of Tripoli, and Chris Wallace on Fox News asking Admiral Mike Mullen (Chmn Joint Chiefs of Staff) political questions that no military man would dream of answering. Just once I would like to hear one of these high ranking flag officers respond ‘Chris, your question requires me to second guess my civilian political bosses. You should know enough about how our government and military work to not go there during such interviews. Were you trying to sandbag me, or do you have extra time to fill so I can deliver some lame sidestep answer?’ Maybe that would bring such interviews back into the adult realm.
Meanwhile President Obama is making it clear that we are not there to take out Gadhafi, the one whom he identified as a rogue and no longer “the legitimate” leader of Libya. Well then, what are we going to do if we let him survive as the leader over some part of that North African desert? Will this be Saddam Hussein and Gulf One revisited? Even as Moammar the Mighty surrounds himself with a protective cordon of women and children who ‘volunteer’ to give their lives for him, all of the Arab world will view our letting the sumbich live as another confirmation of American weakness. And for this we will pay a price.
Were I king, there would be an immediate $10M reward to whoever can deliver Gadhafi’s head in a basket, while we make sure that both the rebels and his own security people have an equal opportunity to collect the money. And were we to continue involving ourselves in such two-bit adventures, I’d make damn sure that we would loudly confirm what everyone already believes and knows – that America does act in its own best interest on the world stage. It’s time to climb back into the front seat.
[21mar2011 update] RR reader and commenter Mikey McD included a link to a telling four-year-old interview the Boston Globe did with then Senator Barack Obama that John Galt, another reader and commenter, recommended for all to read and feared its removal from the newspaper’s website. To allay such fears I have abstracted that interview, and you can download a pdf of it here – Download Obama22dec07Q&A.
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