Following Off to War
I don't know how I feel about our role in Libya, and I'm not at all sure what I would do if I were in President Obama's shoes. However, I do know that I'm troubled more by the route to our present policy than by the policy itself. Committing our country to any sort of military involvement is either the right thing to do, or it's not. It's either in our national interest, or it's not. One or both of those either/or choices should be the guiding principle(s) behind our policy. Instead, the guiding principle seems to be taking guidance from others. The votes are in, and we've made up our mind. We've consulted with others but not among ourselves. We've done more than abandon our role as the leader of the Free World; we wear that abandonment as some sort of badge of honor. It's as if we're making the argument that our involvement is somehow more noble because it's not our idea. World politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and others will be more than happy to try to fill it. Ironically, we might one day have to fight for what we seem to have so blithely given up.
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Jun '10
Re: Following Off to War
...and that's the Rest of the Story. Beautifully stated.
Jul '10
Re: Following Off to War
We? Who we? America was America when Bambo took office and will still be America when Bambo leaves office and the healing can begin. This farcical bumbler has united this country and demonstrated why we are the undisputed leaders of the West in a way that no competent President ever could. He has created the vacuum.
It is telling that, on this topic, the cries for impeachment are coming from across the political spectrum, even if they have not achieved critical mass yet.
Sep '10
Re: Following Off to War
Doesn't it make you absolutely tingle to compare the numerous and repeated claims that we rushed into war with Iraq without good intelligence with what is happeing in Libya?
We basically didn't even discuss it inside the US government until we had agreed to go in per the UN resolution. I can smell the neurons smoking as the American Intellegincia tries to work out the cognitive dissonance between their views on Iraq and Libya.
Jan '11
Re: Following Off to War
Neurons? What neurons?
Mar '11
Re: Following Off to War
It makes me think of Jed Babbin's line that going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion.
NATO went to war with an accordion, and no one likes the music.
May '10
Re: Following Off to War
Steyn often says something similar about the liberal take on just war. To them, Kosovo is the only modern war that was justified precisely because we had no national interest in being there.
That's the truly sickening part. My estimation of the "new" GOP drops with every day of silence about the way this war began. They don't even have the stomach to voice concern over the Constitutionality of this action, let alone condemn Obama's unilateral action.
And, to paraphrase Steyn again, there goes Republicans' "cut" of $2 billion.
Jun '10
Re: Following Off to War
It's a great deal for our brave European allies. If everything goes well, it was their idea. And if it turns into a big never-ending headache, well, then they just hand it off to us, because we're the experts in things that never end..
Nov '10
Re: Following Off to War
I had a long conversation with a young man yesterday who seemed to believe exactly that. He had personally been raised in Croatia and lived through the war there, so he was "not a big fan of war, in general." But this war, he thought, was okay simply because the Europeans and the Arabs had asked us to get involved.
He had felt "unpopular" traveling in Europe on an American passport in recent years--this was his major concern. He had no idea what our interest might be in Libya, except humanitarian, and he had no idea what victory would look like, and these questions didn't bother him, nor did the constitutional questions about how we got involved. In fact, he specifically countered the question of the president's lack of consultation with Congress by saying, "but we consulted with the Europeans."
It is so depressing.
Jul '10
Re: Following Off to War
I can't help but feel that if we (and the French, I cannot praise the French enough and boy--who knew?) had not intervened, the situation would shortly have become another Srebrenica, but I'm also concerned by exactly how and why we got here. I personally wonder how much this was about preventing the Secretary of State from resigning. And the looming threat of what $6/gallon gas would do to the president's re-election prospects. I'm also increasingly concerned by the president's inability to realize that this situation will *not* be resolved in a matter of days...or possibly weeks.
Fortunately, there's some good golf weather coming up to help take his mind off it.
Jan '11
Re: Following Off to War
Let's do a Rorschach test. How do you react to the phrase "America's national interest?"
Our current administration apologizes to the world, and refuses to push negotiations that advance our interests. The classic example is that Obama is giving money to Brazil for offshore drilling, but is preventing us from doing it in the Gulf of Mexico (if that news report is accurate).
A president isn't the world's ambassador to us. We hired him to promote our interests, not to scold us on the world's behalf.
Dec '10
Re: Following Off to War
What do you call taking on an onerous task at someone else's direction completely for another's benefit? DOING PENANCE. That is what the Left thinks American military operations should be used exclusively for.
Dec '10
Re: Following Off to War
Aaron Miller
That's the truly sickening part. My estimation of the "new" GOP drops with every day of silence about the way this war began. They don't even have the stomach to voice concern over the Constitutionality of this action, let alone condemn Obama's unilateral action.
I think (hope) Boehner was simply having the courtesy and good sense to not criticize our national failure, I mean leader, while he was abroad representing us. His letter to Obama is a good sign.
Dec '10
Re: Following Off to War
Stuart Creque, that's pretty darned apt.
May '10
Re: Following Off to War
The King Prawn
I think (hope) Boehner was simply having the courtesy and good sense to not criticize our national failure, I mean leader, while he was abroad representing us. His letter to Obama is a good sign.
That letter mirrors the newsletter I received by my Congressman yesterday. It focuses entirely on requesting information from the President about the nature of our actions in Libya without even raising the issue of what authority, if any, the President had to act as he has already done.
In other words, the GOP is focusing solely on the merit and method of this war.
Such considerations are irrelevant to the fact that launching missiles and dropping bombs while the world watches is clearly war, not a police action. Whether or not Republicans give their blessing to the war after such offensives will have no impact on the willingness of future Presidents to ignore the Constitution in a similar fashion.
It's fine and good for Congress to demand a role in the operations of war. But they have ceded their Constitutional authority to declare war.
Thanks for sharing that letter, by the way.
Jul '10
Re: Following Off to War
Now we are hearing that there are 2000 Marines busily securing Ajdubiyah, Libya. Making the world safe for Sharia. America: Tyrants 'R' Us to the world.
Yes, we are now occupying a third Muslim nation under "orders" of the UN. We really, really need to be in the middle of this.
Edited on Mar 23, 2011 at 5:52pmDec '10
Re: Following Off to War
Aaron, I completely agree that Congress has ceded their authority just as much as presidents have usurped it. Neither party has a monopoly on either virtue or vice in matters of war. It would be nice if the reading of the Constitution in the House would have stuck.
Sisyphus, the Team America theme song is in my head now.
Mar '11
Re: Following Off to War
Well its about time. Here's to hoping our troops won't be put in harms way for naught.