Krauthammer on Obama’s war by international committee
It’s not just a committee that’s “running” the Libyan excursion, it’s an international committee. Not only that, but Professor Obama is refusing the chairmanship, as Charles Krauthammer points out:
And as for the United States, who knows what American policy is. Administration officials insist we are not trying to bring down Gaddafi, even as the president insists that he must go. Although on Tuesday Obama did add “unless he changes his approach.” Approach, mind you. In any case, for Obama, military objectives take a back seat to diplomatic appearances. The president is obsessed with pretending that we are not running the operation — a dismaying expression of Obama’s view that his country is so tainted by its various sins that it lacks the moral legitimacy to … what? Save Third World people from massacre? Obama seems equally obsessed with handing off the lead role. Hand off to whom? NATO? Quarrelling amid Turkish resistance (see above), NATO still can’t agree on taking over command of the airstrike campaign, which is what has kept the Libyan rebels alive. This confusion is purely the result of Obama’s decision to get America into the war and then immediately relinquish American command. Never modest about himself, Obama is supremely modest about his country.
Please read the whole thing.
Never modest about himself, Obama is supremely modest about his country.
Devastating.
Ouch! That had to smart!
Good for Krauthammer!
I don’t often disagree with the good doctor, but this line is inaccurate: “Yet at a time when the world is hungry for America to lead….”
The Chinese don’t, the Russians don’t–they intend to thrive on the chaos. I don’t believe based on my experience that the Europeans want us to lead–what they want is for us to provide the capability and money that they will employ. (I’ve experienced this first-hand.)
I don’t think the Arabs want us to lead either. I think they want us to do, yes, but mostly what they want is for us to act as the blame-catcher whose face/flag always seems to be underfoot in the Arab street.
I’m no isolationist, but I would love to be king for a day. I’d institute a strict rule of trade only where it suits the US. Swift and utter destruction would follow any action harming a US citizen anywhere in the world. There would be no attempts to reconstruct, democratized, educate, feed, warm, or succor in any fashion. Destroy a la Carthage and go back to living our lives in peace at home.
I often look for Krauthammer’s comments on an issue because he expresses so well what I think on a certain issue. I thought it was telling that Obama went to the UN for approval but would not consult congress. Congress is too….American, giving them less moral legitimacy than the UN who once had Libya the chair of the Human Rights Council.
@LAG: I hear you. For years, stability in the world was at the expense of American lives and dollars, only for other countries (European nations and Russia/China of all places) to lecture us on our lack of moral legitimacy.
The only problem is, Europe has been moving to the right on entitlement spending, immigration reform, etc. Thanks to jhihadists, they are now like “Oh!! … you mean that terrorist problem!”
But Obama sold himself as the world healer who will improve frayed relationships with the international community. Remember, for the typical college faculty member, the international community is the pinnacle of moral legitimacy… even if Iran and Lybia are on the human rights committee *snicker*
And notice how deftly the Arab League “pimped” him into doing their dirty work with Khadaffi forces: (Yes we support a no-fly zone; No, we don’t support bombing “civilians” i.e. Khadaffi mercernaries).
It keeps getting better (or worse depending on who you ask) by the day.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/263098/i-dont-care-obama-awesome-jonah-goldberg
Considering what has been revealed (and what most people with common sense already knew) the Muslim Brotherhood are the real force behind Egypt’s “fight for freedom.” Daffy made the statement that Al Queda is behind the uprising in his nation. At this stage of the game, I actually think I believe him for once. I mean, not that he is a swell guy himself, or anything.
However unfortunate Libyan adventure is and will be, for perspective it worth to remember that Livya, with its 6 mln population, is irrelevant. Egypt is very important, Syria too, Iran even more so, but Libya – is not!
It seems that we witness now a complete meltdown of Arab civilization, alike suicide of Russian civilization in 1917, when backward, traditionalist society, absolutely unprepared for any kind of democratical rule, rushed for “freedom” which actually meant only bloody chaos and desintegration.
Never modest about himself, Obama is supremely modest about his country.
Whereas he should be quite the reverse.
Obama have no carriage to front US citizenry with his committee war he looks back to hid himself behind NATO committee.
One wonders if there will ever be an adequate history of this administration. Certainly few journalists will risk being professionally ostracized by telling the truth about this dilettante, likewise for historians. And how many people who voted for him will want to hear how stupid they were even if they have come to their senses? We have already seen hagiographers pretending that his decisions were insightful and thoughtful rather than destructive and spiteful. Lee Remnick managed to mention Honduras twice if memory serves and ignore O’s attempts to destroy freedom there, probably the most clear reflection of who he really is.
I wrote earlier that he seemed to be fouling up on a regular schedule, at least one clear case of incompetence or knavery per week with options for more. In this respect Obama must rank as one of the most remarkable leaders of history. Certainly no leader of an English speaking country has proven so inadequate since King John. That will probably be his re-election slogan, the most outstanding leader since King John.
I predict he will be re-elected in 2012 with fewer votes than in 2008 (that’s sarcasm I hope) .
I’m increasingly reminded of Colin Powell’s (I think) rules for getting involved in a civil war:
1. Don’t.
2. If you do get involved, pick a side.
3. Ensure your side wins.
We’ve ignored rule no. 1 and kinda sorta done number 2. But we’re a long way from doing no. 3.
I applaud LAG and Sergy’s thoughts.
I may have been early, on 3/22 posting here about warfare by committee, destined for failure.
Bob from VA says, “I predict he will be re-elected in 2012 with fewer votes than in 2008 (that’s sarcasm I hope).”
Hillary 2012!
Sergey says, “It seems that we witness now a complete meltdown of Arab civilization…”
Personally, I have never considered the arabs to be civilized.
“I would love to be king for a day. I’d institute a strict rule of trade only where it suits the US. Swift and utter destruction would follow any action harming a US citizen anywhere in the world. There would be no attempts to reconstruct, democratized, educate, feed, warm, or succor in any fashion. Destroy a la Carthage and go back to living our lives in peace at home.”
You have my vote not as king for a day, but as president for 4 years.
PS- I would really like to be invited to fly on AF1.
Prime Minister Churchill once opined that “there is only one thing worse than fighting with allies-and that is having to fight without them.
Present.
I likes it better when we were an “Alpha” nation.
Civilization in terms of history and culturology does not mean “advanced”, it can be as backward and primitive as they come. It only means there are cities, centralized government and written language. We can also speak about Aztec or Inca civilization, which were cannibalic. There is a distinctive Arabic civilization, defined by its language, religion and common cultural traits. And now it is ready to come apart, incapable neither modernize nor compete in globalized world. Iran, which is non-Arabic ethnically, also is so profoundly arabized, that it will probably share the destiny of Arab states.
Sergey, I’d add one thing to Iran: the profound sense of persecution and victimization that Iranians feel as Shia. This often leads to (or contributes) to them believing the wildest conspiracy theories that everyone is out to get them. As a civilization, that can’t be healthy any more than paranoia can be healthy in an individual.
RE: Arab civilization. Five years ago I would describe the contemporary Arab world as what’s left after civilization dies, that is, a mass of small political units all at war with one another with no desire or effort to develop commerce, arts or science. The war on terror is just the political culture of the Arab world plus mass communications. That’s also Fouad Ajami’s view.
The masses want change and will initiate revolutions, which will of course be betrayed. The future, as most have already noted, will probably see the Arab world modeled after Iran; an Islamofascist dictatorship fighting against their angry, bitter populace.
This won’t end well…
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/al-qaeda-snatched-missiles-in-libya/story-e6frfku0-1226028543204#ixzz1Hffm5oRa
Regarding the Arab League encouraging the no-fly zone then distancing themselves from the results: don’t I recall (? from Wikileaks ?) that several Muslim countries were covertly urging the US to “remove” Ahmadinejad?
My thought when I read about that was, “Yep, I’m sure they want that particular dictator gone; but if we fall for it, they’ll turn on us like a viper. They’ll accuse the USA of violating another nation’s sovereignty; they’ll say we’re attacking Islam. It will become yet another excuse to rail against The Great Satan and the result will be more jihad attacks against us.”
Sigh. So anyway, now we’ve set the precedent that when some group of soreheads in the UN want to assert a “moral imperative” to attack a country they don’t like, all they have to do is claim that “civilians are in danger unless we intervene”. Can anyone doubt that the next time Israel retaliates against Hamas rocket strikes, this “moral imperative” will be used by all those morally-upright, freedom-loving, democratic-people’s-republics on the Human Rights Council as a reason to call for joint military strikes against Israel — in order to protect “the poor Palestinians who only wish to be free of Israeli occupation and oppression”?
I would ask if the fools in Washington have any idea what evil they’ve done, except I assume they know VERY WELL that this is what they’ve laid the foundation for.
Slightly OT- Khaddafi/ Gaddafi/ Qaddafy may have been at least partly correct about al-Quaeda participating in the Libyan revolt:
“al-Qaeda snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya”, says the president of Chad.
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/al-qaeda-snatched-missiles-in-libya/story-e6frfku0-1226028543204#ixzz1Hffm5oRa