So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
Aw did you see Hillary Clinton's face? Wasn't it just a picture? That shy little smile - it was like a sweet little birthday girl who's been shown into the yard and: "Oh Daddy, Daddy. A PONY!"
Except, of course, in this case it wasn't a pony. It was the capture of a crazed North African dictator. Hillary was caught on camera as an aide relayed the news. Then the photographs were released to the press which - true to the MSM's narrative that Libya was a "good war" of which we can all be proud - splashed it on front pages so we could all share the happy moment.
It was the same in Britain with the BBC, which for months has been cheerleading the story as if it were the only news event that really matters. "So where were you when you heard the news?" an ecstatic newscaster asked the Foreign Secretary. And it was all the Foreign Secretary could do to suppress his exultant grin and come up with the right sober phrases about the British government disapproving of "extra judicial" killing.
Am I the only one who finds all this deeply nauseating?
Look, don't get me wrong. I'm glad Gaddafi (or Qqadaffyiheh - or however it is you Americans will insist on styling him: there are about two dozen variants as far as I can gather) is dead. I don't care that he didn't stand trial. He has much blood on his hands including, most likely, the passengers and crew of Pan Am flight 103. The world is probably a better place without him.
But that's where my enthusiasm ends. We shouldn't be celebrating this ugly moment of brutal summary justice. At best we should allow ourselves a massive sigh of relief that so far this misbegotten intervention hasn't gone quite as dreadfully as it could have done. It could have dragged on even longer than it has; it could have resulted in our pilots coming home in body bags; but it didn't: Yippee Ki Yay!
On the other hand - as the exultant cries of Allahu Akhbar reverberating round Libya last night hinted - all we may have succeeded in doing is replacing one West-hating tyranny with an even more virulently West-hating tyranny, only this time with added suicide bombers and a stronger sense of divine purpose.
Is that really good value for the money we've spent so far? Even as early as July, the US taxpayer had already spent $896 million to fund this glorious, noble war.
Boy are the Chinese going to be able to buy themselves some ritzy new aircraft carriers with the interest we pay on loans like that!
It's at times like these that I find my sympathies veering toward Ron Paul.
But hey, I don't want to spoil the first ever Ricochet podcast of Radio Free Delingpole, only to whet your appetite. I'll be talking to my terrifyingly precocious young friend Douglas Murray - author, broadcaster, taker-of-no-prisoners, scourge of Islamism, and author of a book titled with characteristic pugnaciousness Neoconservatism: Why We Need It.
In it we talk about why Douglas is still a Neo Con. And why I - if I ever was one - am very much an ex-Neo Con.
Enjoy!
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Nov '10
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
I spell it the way the presidents Bush pronounced it: KaDaffy.
As for our pilots coming home in body bags, give it time: there are an estimated 20,000 anti-aircraft missiles in the late Libyan's arsenal that have now fallen into the hands of his successors, or whoever now controls the weapons caches. The whole Libyan intervention --like the whole Obama administration-- has been a vast experiment in testing the Law of Unintended Consequences. Oh, and KaDaffy's apparent successors seem to be the kind of people who think the bomber of Pan Am 103 is a hero. But at least Europe's main goals --stopping the flow of refugees and maintaining the flow of oil-- have presumably been met.
Apr '11
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
I'm afraid I must expel you from the ranks of ex-neocons into which you have artificially insinuated yourself in shamelessly plugging your podcast (of which we approve -- both of the shamelessness and of the plugging -- we reserve judgment on the podcast to its full hearing).
One of the application boxes you must check -- without hanging chads of the kind you left in your post -- is that you were at one time a neocon.
To reiterate, sir, if you wish to be admitted to the august fraternity of ex-neocons, you must be able to state decisively that you were at one time -- prior to your application -- a neocon.
Sincerely and with best wishes. ;-)
May '10
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
"replacing one West-hating tyranny with an even more virulently West-hating tyranny"
I originally read it as "replacing one West-hating tranny with an even more virulently West-hating tranny" raising the question who inherits Kadaffy's wardrobe??
May '10
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
I think we can safely give Obama credit for this. His bump in the polls after killing Osama bin Laden lasted what? Two weeks? I doubt he'll get a huge boost for knocking off Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
As to the money, this isn't Britain. That's the cheapest "Don't Mess with the Empire" operation we've ever conducted. Admittedly, it was for the paltry goal of ousting Rue McClanahan in a caftan, but he's still remembered as a terrorist and mass murderer.
We can only hope Obama chooses to follow the Don't Buy It, Just Break It policy advocated by such foreign policy luminaries as me and Ace of Spades. If so, then huzzah for Barry! It won't help him in 2012.
Mar '11
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
The Earth is definitely better off with Qadaffi under some of it. (I read once that there are about 140 variants on the spelling.) What fresh hell awaits us, I have no idea. We probably won't hear anything more about the missing shoulder-fired SAMs until a few airliners end up splattered all over the landscape. There are about six militias wandering around Libya, plus the Berbers, plus the disaffected remnants of the previous regime, and various refugees from whichever corner of the region they came from, and I find the likelihood of them all just getting along as being pretty slim.
Jul '10
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
That $895 million spent expunging Khadaffi -- check the spelling, it's probably wrong, too -- could have been used here at home to produce 100 new or saved jobs.
Edited on Oct 21, 2011 at 5:21amMar '11
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
I guess a neocon-type regime change is fine if it is done by a Socialist Nobel laureate, leading from behind, without congressional approval? - yes, it's the hypocrisy which is so nauseating.
As to what happens next, it's all part of the inexorable replacement of obnoxious dictators by Islamism, a la Iran, 1979.
Oh, well, James, looking forward to your podcast with Mr Murray - a rare treat!
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
Good Lord. I cannot wait for the podcast.
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
Me either.
Dec '10
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
If Obama's plan is to make the world a safer place to hate the West more passionately then he is succeeding admirably well.
Jun '10
Re: So Gaddafi's Dead? Big Deal.
Nick Stuart: "replacing one West-hating tyranny with an even more virulently West-hating tyranny"
I originally read it as "replacing one West-hating tranny with an even more virulently West-hating tranny" raising the question who inherits Kadaffy's wardrobe?? · Oct 21 at 4:35am
The Transvestite Hall of Fame and Fashion Design has established a bid-committee, and looks to be the most aggressive and determined collector on the trail.