Posted on 04/01/2011 6:38:35 PM PDT by Kaslin
Leadership: As we put CIA boots on the ground to find out who the rebels are and withdraw air support as they retreat, our defense secretary describes how we're making up our policy as we go along.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were on Capitol Hill Thursday in a marathon of congressional testimony trying to explain our ad hoc "kinetic" military actions in Libya and a policy that seems to change and get redefined minute by minute.
Among the issues discussed was the decision to remove American close air support just as the rebels were reeling from a government counteroffensive in the hope that NATO will pick up the slack.
"Your timing is exquisite," Republican Sen. John McCain said sarcastically, alluding to Gadhafi's military advances this past week.
Inexplicable would be a better word. Mullen and Gates stressed that even though powerful combat aircraft like the side-firing AC-130 gunship and the A-10 Thunderbolt, used for close air support of friendly ground forces, were to stop flying after Saturday, they would be on standby.
"The idea that the AC-130s and the A-10s and American air power (are) grounded unless the place goes to hell is just so unnerving that I can't express it adequately," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. We find it unnerving too, an example of the chaos resulting from the lack of presidential leadership.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Pathetic. They haven’t got a clue.
you said it
The war will now enter a much more static phase until the rebels can consolidate and organize. Our teams will be there to help and also vet the new guys joining the rebels, many of whom are AQ, coming in from Iraq and Pakistan.
This will not turn out well, and I truly believe this will be Obutthead’s undoing. While I don’t have a problem with the “undoing” part, the potential blow to our image, reputation, and maybe loss of American troops really pisses me off.
I think Ann Coulter, or perhaps it was Mark Steyn or both, said that the only time that Liberals want America to enter a war is when we have absolutely no American interests involved.
I cannot think of a better example than Libya, although Kosovo comes pretty close.
Obama makes America look like The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Perhaps that’s his goal.
And when the islamists outnumber the Red Arabs, then what?
baraq is “winging it” and in the end will get good Americans dead.
Thanks dims.
Rush quote: “We cannot trust national security to the democrats”.
Once again I ask.....are we going to keep some of the dictators money to pay us back for the estimated $1 billion it’s going to take to complete this war.
The word quagmire would have been in every news story if there was a republican in the white house. The media put that word away when Bush left office and the perfumed turd took over.
I watched a bit of that on cspan, including Lt. Col. Allen West’s questions.
That hearing once again demonstrates the unmitigated gall of nobama and the cabal he represents.
A beleaguered Secretary Gates looked like he was defending dumping a truckload of manure in front of everyone’s favorite restaurant, defending the indefensible, in lieu of the joker himself interrupting his enjoyments.
Somebody has to be SOD, what a distasteful job at this point. Mullens just stayed under cover, speaking only from as purely a technical perspective as possible.
This is so, so, so blatantly indefensible. The last two years have just been a dizzying series of monumental Constitutional abominations. I guess in history we have seen governmental craziness on this scale before; all we can do is keep our heads and work towards a return to sanity.
I hope the military keeps the responsibility of this on the WH - just get the orders documented.
Liberal criteria for a war:
1. No American national interest is at hand.
2. We don't try to win.
“Everyone knows the Democrat base doesn’t care about foreign affairs. Shoot, they think foreign affairs was when Ted Kennedy rented that whorehouse. We’ll launch a few cruise missiles to keep the press from looking at what’s going on in the country. Who gives a sh_t about some dead Libyans. Do they vote here or donate money to the Democrat party?”
The big difference seems to be that Germany pimped for one and France pimped for the other.
(Is Barry's middle name "John"?)
Pure, BS, we have no business there, pull out, no more nation building.
Complete my ass, we are not going to complete the other two stink holes. Pull out and stop pissing chinese money away.
Just so you know, my money is on MO! Yeah, I know, taking a dictator versus Al Qaeda.
What a choice, what a choice! I tell you, I just don’t get no respect!
Rodney, you were the best.......how did you end up on this thread?
How can you say that about our
C A L I P H in Chief?
If we have forward air control on the ground, I feel sorry for those guys. They could not be embedded with a more incompetent armed mob as the Libyan rebels.
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