The Ungracious

As seemed inevitable with the rising fortunes of the NATO-backed Libyan rebels, Muammar Qaddafi has been found hiding in a drainage pipe and executed with the same response to his call for mercy that he gave so many others, both Libyans and Lockerbee victims, as well as others due to his support for terrorist activities around the world. The guy ruled for four decades, from the age of 27 when he was the good guy overthrowing the assholes, but he has long since been a bad man, who got what he deserved.

Good riddance and congrats to the Libyan people on their new opportunity for a just, democratic, inclusive society. Now don't screw it up.

The response by politicians in the U.S. has been predictable. Obama did not crow, but urged responsibility; politicians of both parties took the opportunity to pontificate at various lengths; some Dems thanked the President for his leadership, at 180 degree odds with the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush Administration way of doing things (only $2 billion not $3 trillion, lead from behind by making good partnership not taking over and huffing/puffing our way to alienating our allies, not a single U.S. soldier killed compared to 4,478 in Iraq alone); and almost no GOoPers had the graciousness to thank or congratulate or even acknowledge that Obama provided the right decisions to support this effort at the crucial moment when a massacre was about to happen. It's not right for every situation, but this was the time to "Lead from Behind."

Least gracious of all -- and, perhaps, damaging to his rosy political prospects -- was freshman Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), whose statement was so douchey he had to walk it back a few hours later:

“Today’s not a day to point fingers,” the right-wing Florida senator said. “I’m glad it’s all working out. Ultimately this is about the freedom and liberty of the Libyan people. But let’s give credit where credit is due: it’s the French and the British that led in this fight, and probably even led on the strike that led to Gadhafi’s capture, and, or, you know, to his death.

“So, that’s the first thing. The second thing is, you know, I criticize the president, for, he did the right things, he just took too long to do it and didn’t do enough of it.”

I would say in response, "So much for your Vice Presidential chances, assbag." The President won. Your approach wasn't even tested...because a better man than you made the right decision. A guy who understands gratitude.

Hilarious to see a GOoPer praising the French nine years after the entire Republican Party vilified them for not joining in on the Iraq debacle, even renaming french fries to "freedom fries" in the Capitol cafeteria. Doh.

Rubio picked a bad day for bad PR, because he got the double whammy, making both less likely to be forgotten. It seems he lied -- or was misinformed and spread that misinformation -- about when his parents came to the U.S. from Cuba. By 2 1/2 years. They weren't driven out by Castro...they left before he came to power.

Who's the one-termer now?

Libya Within Reach

It's looking like President Barack Obama is once again proving an excellent Commander-in-Chief, having chosen to help the Libyan rebel uprising in a smart, internationally coordinated, well-timed way. And it seems that raging asshole of so many decades, Qaddafi, is looking at short numbered days:

Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s grip on power dissolved with astonishing speed on Monday as rebels marched into the capital and arrested two of his sons, while residents raucously celebrated the prospective end of his four-decade-old rule.

In the city’s central Green Square, the site of many manufactured rallies in support of Colonel Qaddafi, jubilant Libyans tore down posters of him and stomped on them. The rebel leadership announced that the elite presidential guard protecting the Libyan leader had surrendered and that their forces controlled many parts of the city, but not Colonel Qaddafi’s leadership compound.

I still hope he ends up on a meathook (for Lockerbee alone), but maybe he'll get some undeserved mercy.

However, with the GOP, their mouthpieces and their propaganda machines like Fox News give the President credit for foresight and decisiveness? Will they give him the partial credit he deserves for this victory?

Not looking promising.

BTW, unlike with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in Iraq, there's actual planning underway for after the revolution.

The War We Can Win?

Is Obama following that old dictum that a new(ish) President should pick a small war he can win? Even the rightly skeptical Andrew Sullivan is starting to admit that Obama (or Obama-Clinton-Powers-Rice) may have made the right choices regarding military intervention in Libya. The latest:

American and European bombs battered Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s most important bastion of support in his tribal homeland of Surt on Sunday night, as rebels seeking his ouster capitalized on the damage from the Western airstrikes to erase their recent losses and return to the city’s doorstep.

Their swift return, recapturing two important oil refineries and a strategic port within 20 hours, set the stage for a battle in Surt that both sides say could help decide the war for Libya.

There were unconfirmed reports early Monday that rebel forces had entered Surt and routed pro-Qaddafi defenders, but there was no corroboration. Even so, rebels in Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi, reacted by running into the streets and firing weapons into the air to celebrate.

The difference between this and the Bush version of Middle East war is that we are very deliberately taking a supporting role (i.e. getting NATO to take command), while surely involved diplomatically behind the scenes.

And if we should be so fortunate that the Administration successfully unseats Qaddafi, I expect the rhetoric that ensues from Fox News and GOP meat puppets will be quite the spectacle.

Hilarious

I can't say that I'm 100% aboard the Libya action, but I'm willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt. However, for Republicans, even when he follows their prescription for creating the No-Fly Zone, they're never happy with him!

Thankfully, Salon has a useful flowchart of GOP response to our President.

The Mitt Romney dig may be the best.

Caught

Nic Robertson, correspondent for CNN in Libya, tears into the Fox News lies of the week:



Glad to see him standing up. It's barely news now that Fox News lies (while the Fox Network has some great shows) except to the rubes who follow it and let it form and/or reinforce their fallacious opinions.

Except they never seem to get that news.

The New War

So the U.N. okayed going after that ruthless megalomaniac klepto-fascist psychopath, Qaddafi, and that means the U.S. is entering it's third war at once (or second, if you think 50k troops in Iraq is strictly advisers, no longer war). The most interesting discussion of this has been on Andrew Sullivan's blog, with Andrew taking his mea culpa for supporting the Iraq sell-in to war while airing plenty of dissents, as he does so well and daily on his blog:

You should be applauding the way Barack Obama is handling the Libya situation. It is realpolitik in a most self-aware, calculating, interest-driven, human rights driven, cold-blooded form. It's something you claim to want in our foreign policy.

The US is not leading this, and probably won't, ever. That is why Barack Obama is not making a public drive for support. In fact, we were moved toward a no-fly zone by Arab countries largely, and Europe, decisively. When was the last time that happened? Ask yourself why Obama is acting this way.

Evidently both Clintons wanted this action, likening it more to that Administration's success in Bosnia, particularly getting NATO to take their part, than invading with mainly American troops. But Obama may have done the Clinton's one better:

But notice that unlike Clinton in the case of Bosnia, and unlike Bush in the case of Iraq II, Obama has managed to get something his predecessors could not: UN support for what could be a major multilateral intervention led by states other than the U.S. Doesn't this remind you in some ways of how he handled healthcare, and succeeded where his predecessors had failed, to do something of real significance through patience, reserve, and a commitment to process?

And then there is, interestingly enough, an important ally in Egypt:

Egypt has an open border with the rebel-controlled east of Libya, and just one brigade of the Egyptian army would be enough to stop Gaddafi’s ground forces in their tracks. The Egyptian air force could easily shoot down any of Gaddafi’s aircraft that dared to take off, especially if it had early warning from European or American AWACS aircraft. The Egyptian army would probably not need to go all the way to Tripoli, although it could easily do so if necessary. Just the fact of Egyptian military intervention would probably convince most of the Libyan troops still supporting Gaddafi that it is time to change sides.

This is the first war President Obama has chosen that wasn't a remnant of previous Presidents. To me it's where we'll see his true Commander-in-Chief character, as even Afghanistan, for all the talk of him now owning it, was essentially a mulligan from the Bush Administration's failure to capitalize on their initial success, due to their pathological and Oedipal focus on Iraq.

I don't know if Sullivan's fighting the last war (a common error) and I don't want the U.S. in another long slog either, but I really want to see Qaddafi at The Hague, if not hung by rope or meathook first. Bad is bad, and he's essentially paying a mercenary army to do his dirty work -- yours and my gasoline credit card purchases paying for the leveling of villages controlled by the rebels. So I like the idea of making Libya's neighbors do the policing.

With weapons they bought from us.

Hee-yah!

Libya Next

Gaddafi who is think used to be spelled Qaddafi is possibly trying to run to Venezuela, a rumor he refuted tonight in Tripoli with an umbrella:



Why should he be worried? He's shooting directly into peaceful protests and losing his own government out from under him:

"What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead," Adel Mohamed Saleh said in a live broadcast on al Jazeera television. "Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car, they will hit you."

...

A group of army officers issued a statement urging fellow soldiers to "join the people" and help remove Gaddafi.

The justice minister resigned in protest at the "excessive use of violence" against protesters and diplomats at Libya's mission to the United Nations called on the Libyan army to help overthrow "the tyrant Muammar Gaddafi."

...

Two Libyan fighter jets landed in Malta, their pilots defecting after they said they had been ordered to bomb protesters, Maltese government officials said.

...

The demonstrations spread to Tripoli, on the Mediterranean Sea, after several cities in the east, including Benghazi, appeared to fall to the opposition, according to residents.

Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people had been killed in five days of violence, but opposition groups put the figure much higher.

...

A coalition of Libyan Muslim leaders told all Muslims it was their duty to rebel against the Libyan leadership because of its "bloody crimes against humanity."

The building where the General People's Congress, or parliament, meets in Tripoli was on fire on Monday, as was a police station in an eastern suburb, witnesses said.

Even the Libyan ambassador to the U.N. has pledged allegiance to the people, not the dictator and his family. Per Juan Cole, the cost is high:

I am watching Aljazeera Arabic, which is calling people in Tripoli on the telephone and asking them what is going on in the capital. The replies are poignant in their raw emotion, bordering on hysteria. The residents are alleging that the Qaddafi regime has scrambled fighter jets to strafe civilian crowds, has deployed heavy artillery against them, and has occupied the streets with armored vehicles and strategically-placed snipers. One man is shouting that “the gates of Hell have opened” in the capital and that “this is Halabja!” (where Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered helicopter gunships to hit a Kurdish city with sarin gas, killing 5000 in 1988).

This is what pisses me off about Americans who don't bother to exercise their right to vote.

Sharpen those meathooks.