Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Leadership, and the lack thereof.

Libya is being torn apart as the world watches. Ghadaffi is killing Libyans with air strikes and attacking the oil refineries as the people trying to throw his dictatorship off call for help from the world--including the US--begging us to save them and their country.

But Obama's too busy to take that call. He's got a basketball-watching party to host.

Priorities, you know. As tough, potentially world-changing decisions have to be made, Obama just continues to vote "present". And as in Egypt and Iran, people in Libya who are fighting for their freedom are dying as they wait for help that's not coming.

If you voted for him, part of the blame for this is yours. And as much as B.O. tries to portray himself as Ronald Reagan's heir apparent, none of this would have gone down this way on Reagan's watch.

There was a time that America really stood for freedom and fought to expand it across the globe. But this is not that time.

Perhaps, in 2013, it will be again.

16 comments:

  1. Excellent point! Sigh...

    WV- cult Interesting...

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  2. AMEN!! AMEN!! AMEN!!!

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  3. Anonymous11:26 PM

    After poor Barry is so stressed out.He must relax at a party of some type.After playing golf and world travel is hard on him.

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  4. Yeesh, the man has spent 30% of his time in office on vacation.

    I can see where he can't get the time to do something on Libya.

    So much for his campaign promise to intervene when there's a moral imperative to intervene.

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  5. Libya is a sovereign nation. Let them solve their own problems. Didn't we learn the price of messing in other countries politics in Iraq? as you can see the many American flags of freedom flying in Bagdad....right?
    Let's not forget Libya is no friend to the US I saw countless Libyan fighters in Iraq, Afghanistan, who were hell bent on spilling American blood, now that the government they supported for 42 years is putting a foot in their a** they now cry for our help? Not one American life is worth this Sh*thole country!

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  6. Actually our problem is not with the Libyan people, but with Ghadaffi, a man who has supported terrorism world-wide for decades. If by our limited assistance, we can ensure that he is toppled, that's a good thing. If in the process we can build a working relationship with the forces that overthrow him and help create a stable government that, if not pro-US, at least is not anti-US, then that's a win as well. Remember that Libya once was a US ally, and home to Wheelus Air Force Base, which we used until 1971.

    We have a chance to help usher in a new era there, and a new leadership more agreeable to us. Or we can just go along with Obama and let Ghadaffi crush the rebellion, making him even stronger and more of a threat.

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  7. Oh--and NE...

    I'm a Contra, too. Every real American was back then.

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  8. Ok Murphy. But can we let him thin the herd a bit first?
    The Libyan people were the ones burning American flags remember?
    But seriously I agree with your point of an opportunity to establish a pro democracy/pro US government, however my concern is can our current leaders devise a plan to accomplish this? Or will I have to go back to yet another backwards ass country and not be able to fight because of stupid rules of engagement? To the tune of countless young American lives only to pull out with an unfinished job...ie Afghanistan.
    I say let the Libyan people prove their desire for democracy by fighting for it themselves spill their own blood first.

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  9. I'm not saying that we land the Marines there (again). But a little air cover to even the odds a bit and ensure that the next regime, if unfriendly to the region, at least starts out with a hardware deficit, sure can't hurt.

    BTW, Murphy's the dog who lives here and he doesn't blogI .blog, but I'm just the guy who feeds him and gives him his barking orders.

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  10. Quote: "Didn't we learn the price of messing in other countries politics in Iraq?"

    Steven, have you considered that perhaps Iraq is the catalyst for the uprisings in the Mid East? That the people of Libya, Tunisia, etc, have seen that freedom is achievable because of Iraq?

    And have you noticed that it is Bush's name they are calling in asking for a No Fly Zone, another indicator that we potentially accomplished more in Iraq than we dreamed of at the time?

    Truthfully, I haven't seen any discussion of this, but is seems to me to be at least a possibility.

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  11. Ok One who feeds Murphy. : ) again... Your plan involves committing US military assets in the form of air support. It sounds safer and less imposing as say ground troops, armor, infantry etc. It is still a US military led resolve that is costly. Both politically, financially. It would be nice to see a regional government, say Saudi Arabia offer the air support. I know for a fact they have a vested interest in who controls the ebb and flow of the largest oil reserves in Africa. It would also bolster support of their own people who are salivating for a bit more "democracy".

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  12. Spikessib, Iraq would not Be in my opinion a good example of democracy. Warring tribes are inflicting an awful lot casualties on all side jockeying for the top spot... This is not democracy nor is it a good example for those countries seeking democracy/ freedom. BTW. The Iraqi no fly zone was a farce!! As I mentioned in a previous post our rules of engagement were a joke. By the time I call up the chain of command to get authorization to fire on an aircraft buzzing by at 500 knots it has cleared the no fly zone!

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  13. Well, we must understand that he knows how it feels to be bullied . . . .

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  14. True Democracy rarely works. With their tribal culture, Iraq, and other middle-eastern and African nations, are going to have to learn to function as Republics. And that is a form of government that we aren't modeling very well these days.

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  15. "I'm a Contra, too. Every real American was back then."

    Holy hell.

    No reasonable person, regardless politics, would ever say this. You either know nothing about the Contras or you harbor some deep, dark demons in your head and I pity you. I pray that this is not the case and that given some thought, you would not associate yourself with rapists, mutilators, and the executors of innocent children.

    Disgusting.

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  16. NE, Again, I have to think that you weren't around or old enough to understand back then. Even assuming that the claims that you make are true--which is a whole different issue--we didn't support the Contras because we thought that they were swell guys. We supported them because they were working to topple the communist dictatorship in Nicaragua, the only communist country in our hemisphere save Cuba and one that was actually building bases for Russian bombers back when the Russians weren't even pretending to be our friends.

    Your problem, NE, is that you keep looking at the world as it exists now, and not as it was then. And back then, our aid to the Contras led to the collapse of the Nicaraguan Communist government so it was definitely a good thing to have done. We could have done a lot more had not the Democrats worked so hard to stop it because they wanted to discredit President Reagan more than they valued National Security.

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