Libya: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Posted by Michael Cohen
First, the good. One of the biggest fears about the military operations in Libya is that the United States would be stuck holding the military bag. But the decision yesterday by NATO to assume responsibility for military operations goes a long way toward allaying those concerns - and strikes me as a hugely important diplomatic breakthrough. Now we have a structure in place for sharing responsibility among a host of countries so that is no longer a US-led operation. Of course it's possible that the US might still be forced to bear the greatest military burden, but now there is a structure in place for burden-sharing and that is a very positive step forward.
Now the bad. Having the NATO structure is important because it does seem like this operation will be going on for a while. This article by Nancy Youssef only adds to the sense that the Libyan rebels are in no position to take over the country any time soon - and even if they were, no clue whatsoever on how govern it:
Rebel fighters who once vowed to seize Tripoli from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi instead have retreated from their forward positions to defend their homes, saying their rebel council isn't leading them, they don't trust their military commanders and their army is divided.
Days of interviews throughout Libya's rebel-dominated eastern half provide a grim picture of the group whose side the U.S. and its coalition partners have taken in a fight whose goal, if unstated, is to drive Gadhafi from power after 42 years. The rebels hardly seem ready to take the lead.
If the US and UN goal is to send Gaddafi packing we're either going to have put ground troops in Libya or be prepared for a lengthy engagement of enforcing a no-fly zone and building up a rebel army. Or we may have to accept a de facto partition of the country also supported by NATO arms and diplomacy. In short we are in Libya for the long haul - either militarily or politically - no matter what the White House says about days not weeks.
This leads to the ugly . . and there is a lot of ugly. First Bruce Ackerman, "In taking the country into a war with Libya, Barack Obama's administration is breaking new ground in its construction of an imperial presidency -- an executive who increasingly acts independently of Congress at home and abroad."
Second Mike Tomasky, who is rightfully pissed off about Obama's public silence about the war, "When you send soldiers off to fight, you have to tell the American people why. I'm just flabbergasted."
Finally, Spencer Ackerman, "It’s one thing to say that the U.S. is right to take action against Moammar Gadhafi. It’s quite another to insist that it’s not even a war. And it’s simply dishonest to do so while escalating the war.But that’s the spin from the Obama White House . . . And it fits a pattern with President Obama: escalating U.S. military commitments while portraying them as essentially finite and limited."
What is perhaps most disturbing about this entire Libyan escapade (and there are many disturbing elements) is President Obama's seemingly curt dismissal of basic democratic norms. The lack of public debate, the lack of consultation with Congress, the failure to address the American people; the transparent and embarrassing effort to call what is clearly a war, something different ("Time-limited, scope limited military action" my ass) it's all very troubling.
There is an arrogance and outright deviousness from this President on national security matters that has only been hinted at in the Afghanistan escalation and seems now fully flowered with Libya. I sort of take for granted that Presidents will mislead the American people about the wars we fight (it's another of the many reasons why American wars are a generally bad thing); I just didn't expect it from this President.
*On a sort of related note I did this really enjoyable interview with the inestimable Carl Prine that touches on some of these issues. If you have any interest in military affairs and national security in general be sure to start following Carl's new blog Line of Departure - a smarter, snappier and more insightful analyst you will rarely find.
A Congressional debate about use of force in Libya would have resulted in Gaddafi's tanks bombarding Benghazi and Tobruk while we listened to Orrin Hatch and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen try to figure out which position to take to hurt the Administration more.
This is one of the cases where speedy action was required if there was going to be action at all. For once, the world actually decided to act before the real massacres began, instead of pretending that Congressional bloviating actually matters or that the American people are being "consulted" when James Inhofe and David Vitter get to speechify.
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