oyuki

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Ineptitude, Courage, and Libya

Only the United States under President Obama would formulate strategic US foreign policy guided by fears of hurting feelings. At least that is the impression Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Tuesday in testimony before Congress when she said - "We feel we that we did this in a prudent and effective manner, and we did it in a way that did not raise the alarm bells around the region and the world that we were about to invade for oil... But the last thing we wanted was to start off with military assets, when we effectively got our people out. Yeah, the seas were high. The seas were high for the other evacuators as well."

This follows questions many have had in regards to President Obama's very hands off approach to Libya in comparison to US ally Egypt. If we are to believe Clinton's remarks, its more of the 'We are not Bush' foreign policy playbook. In this case the old No Blood For Oil meme. If this is true, then Hosni Mubarak could have stayed in power by claiming to find oil. Words like simplistic, stupid, and suicidal pop to mind.

And it is a slightly different excuse than the previous one trotted out by the Obama administration. That the soft policy with Libya was due to concerns for the safety of American citizens in Libya. Which upon closer examination falls apart since there were far more American citizens, including tourists, in Egypt yet Obama did all he could to actively kick Mubarak out while the Egyptian populace rioted. It could be argued from these statements that Obama would let Libya hold Americans hostage, something not seen since Desert Shield/Desert Storm when Saddam Hussein took many foreign nationals hostage and placed them at critical locations to ward off coalition air strikes. Or perhaps Obama does truly want to replace James Earl Carter in the annals of ineptitude and start another 444 days of shame? I do not think Obama really wants that, but his weak actions are leading to it.

Meanwhile in the deserts of Libya, brave men are doing the hard thing. British Special Air Service, who got their start in WWII in the Libyan desert battling Rommel's Afrika Corps, have managed to evacuate more than 150 civilians to Malta aboard two Hercules transports. And Germany says it has evacuated 132 civilians via military airlift from the Libyan desert. Where are the American Wings of Eagles? Being clipped by a Democratic administration that seeks to curry favor instead of commanding respect it seems.

2 comments:

Maggie said...

Anna this is a really good summary and I might add very astute.

My thoughts are that the weakness shown over Libya is another signal for the Islamist types that they can go ahead and invade the USA using the Mexican border... nothing will stop the invasion.

This is my biggest fear about the weakness that is being shown.

Anna said...

Maggie, it may not even take such an invasion to topple the US. The Obama energy policy is hobbling any dream of American energy independence and now oil producing countries in the Middle East are falling. We could see the return of another Carter malaise, the dreaded gas line as the newly radical oil contries hold the US hostage because they know Obama is weak. Which could precipitate yet another Carter calamity - Desert One as Obama tries to prove he does have a backbone. Obama's lack of a coherent foreign policy is making the whole world a far more dangerous place.