I think it proves Obama doesn’t have any sort of strategic, longterm planning at all and that his administration is mostly reactionary. Concerning this specific conflict, I wouldn’t doubt that they’d like to get someone else in charge of the worlds 6th largest oil reserves. How do they plan on getting there, though?

The end game is quite clear. It is to perpetuate in any way possible America’s dependence on oil. Wars for oil preclude behavior modification, for the better, for the expense of the of war squanders resources. These policies are dilatory. All employed over a century ago by slave-owners, seeking to protect “cash cows” at the expense of life.

It’s true that you can’t win a war through air strikes alone, but you’ve got the rebels on the ground receiving weapons and supplies. We’re talking about a small country population-wise. One main road across the country. It’s not Vietnam, the Iraq War, or Afghanistan. I think the (understood) goal of getting rid of Gadafi is achievable, and the best part is that the French and British seem willing to take the lead. My biggest concern is how we ensure Islamic radicals (including al-Qaeda) don’t usurp the revolution. They seem to be keeping a low profile for now, but they’re there.

This war also takes attention away from some tea party efforts to overthrow our government and install a military dictatorship. Really.

Senator Rand Paul is acting as the front person for the effort, releasing a budget plan that among other things ends the Department of Energy and transfers the Atomic Energy Agency lock, stock and barrel over to the Department of Defense, an agency with a history of declaring accidents, etc. as ‘national secrets’. So the DOD will have full possession as well as full control over all aspects of nukes in this country. One de-facto military dictatorship coming right up, I wonder which of the tea party leaders wants to be in charge after the takeover…

http://senatus.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/paul_budget.pdf

Now that we have already spent $100 million on our newest “non-war” in Libya (because if we correctly called it a war that would mean President Obama is in violation of the Constitution), I’m left wondering: What is our end game?
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The US has signed on to article 42/43 in case where the UN has determined via the security council for humanitarian action the right of the President to act to aid with military assetts without the consent of congress. Those are the rules. You want to contest them you will need Congress to change something that has been a fact for a long time.
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You simply can’t win a war using only targeted air strikes while trying to avoid killing civilians. It has never happened, and it never will.
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This “action” has been in place all of 5 days and you are already predicting the outcome. This war is a war of freedom versus despotism and will require much more than purely air strikes . But airstrikes have already prevernted a complete rut of the rebel forces, the same rebels that a mere month prior were acting as doctors, enginmeer, students, farmers and any manner of civilian you can catagorize who have lived for 42 years under tyranny.
Give it a chance oh nay sayer. There will be more to come and the free peoples of Libya are happy about it for a change (unlike Iraq or Afghanistan…can you see the difference?)
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Are we hoping the Arab League provided the ground troops for an invasion and occupation force? because it seems they couldn’t be backtracking faster from any kind of commitment.

Of course not but you would have to have more than a cursory understanding of the Arab world to get that basic fact. Egypt and Tunisia will not get involved becuase they are neighbors and the mere chance (however hoe slim) that Ghaddaffi retains powere is reason enogh not to stick one’s hand in the hornets nest while they are trying to deal with their own revolutions. Qatar has gotten involved and the Arab League cannot affor to put themselves in opposition if the popular wave for democracy becasue in ALL Arab countries the support for intervention is very high.
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Are we hoping a few lucky strikes kill Muammar Gaddafi and his family? Because I imagine the guy has spent the last few decades building some really great secret bunkers, and even if we kill him, I imagine that would just result in power going to one of his generals.
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Unimportant and his only generals are in his blood line or tribe, which will be oposed.
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Are we hoping that the no-fly zone will provide the protection so that Bengazi will basically turn into a quasi-autonomous entity like Kurdistan in Iraq under Saddam? So, our end game is enforcing this no-fly zone-based peace for the next few decades.
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He will not last that long. Sorry the circumstances are different has the revolution in Egypt Tunisia and the uprisings throughout the middle east not awoken you to the fact of the very deep difference this time is to a decade ago?
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Is this no-fly zone meant to give us several months to train the rebels and flood them with weapons? Because then we have a full-scale civil war, and we are left with the question of what do if the rebels start to losing again.
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Inastead of pre-empting this you may want to investigate the combatants, who desires to change things and who simply works out of fear or greed. Which do you think will prevail given even a modicum of aid? How can people who beleive in progress and progressive values so easily dismiss the fight of the everyman against a brutal dictatorship out of knee-jerk cynicism?
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From where I sit, it is looking like Obama has doubled down on involving us in another conflict in the Middle East with ill-defined goals and no end game.
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Then you have very little vision. This is a game changer. If Libya succeeds the entire Middle East wil view the West and the US differently. They wil see the US as actualy backing democracy and Liberty. They wil be heartened and seek to force their regimedsinto the 21st century. If they fail we are back to the same suppresive and brutal regimes that have characterized the Arabs for a century. Sounds like a dream for Israel, no wonder they support Saif.

From AJE:

11:27pm A majority of French support the foreign military operations in Libya, according to the first poll carried out in France since operations started against Gaddafi’s forces on Saturday.

According to the survey conducted by pollster IFOP, 66 per cent of those surveyed supported the intervention and there was no difference between left-wing or right-wing political streams.

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