Teaspoon of force
You don’t just walk up to the local bully and slap him across the face. If you are determined to confront him, then you try to knock the living daylights out of him. Otherwise, you are better off to leave him alone.
Anyone who grew up in my old neighborhood in Harlem could have told you that. But Barack Obama didn’t grow up in my old neighborhood. He had a much more genteel upbringing, including a fancy private school, in Hawaii.
No ground troops
Maybe that is why he thinks he can launch military operations against Moammar Gadhafi, while promising not to kill him and promising that no American ground troops will be used.
It is the old liberal illusion that you can measure out force with a teaspoon, not only in military operations micro-managed by civilians in Washington, like the Vietnam war, but also in domestic confrontations when the police are trying to control a rioting mob, and are being restrained by politicians, while the mob is restrained by nobody.
We went that route in the 1960s, and the results were not inspiring, either domestically or internationally.
The old saying, “When you strike at a king, you must kill him,” is especially apt when it comes to attacking a widely recognized sponsor of international terrorism like Col. Gadhafi. To attack him without destroying his regime is just asking for increased terrorism against Americans and America’s allies. So is replacing him with insurgents who include other sponsors of terrorism.
Missing logic
President Obama’s Monday night speech was long on rhetoric and short on logic. He said: “I believe that this movement of change cannot be turned back, and that we must stand alongside those who believe in the same core principles that have guided us.”
Just what would lead him to conclude that this includes the largely unknown forces who are trying to seize power in Libya?
Creators Syndicate