Posted on 04/02/2011 7:59:44 AM PDT by KeyLargo
chicagotribune.com
Obama opposed to 'dumb' war, but that was so 2002
Confused about Libya? Presidential rhetoric doesn't help
John Kass
10:49 AM CDT, April 1, 2011
He attacked his own people. His own people.
And he showed them no mercy by sending his well-armed troops to crush them. He refused to listen to the pleas of foreign leaders who begged him to stop the relentless attacks against his people. And still, he kept killing these people. His own people.
I'm talking about Abraham Lincoln, of course.
And while I'm not equating our own Honest Abe with a dictator, like, say, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, let's not forget what civil wars actually involve.
They don't involve killing strangers. Civil wars involve killing your own people. That's why they call them civil wars. The dead are dispatched by neighbors, by people who shared lives and common language and culture. Sometimes they're killed by relatives. In civil wars, people kill their own.
And the only reason for outsiders to get involved is if it's vital to their own interests.
So all this impassioned "his own people" rhetoric that the Obama administration has been tossing out for weeks now to justify American involvement in Libya is just that — rhetoric. And it's dangerous.
"Gadhafi declared he would show 'no mercy' to his own people," President Barack Obama said in his address to the nation the other night, explaining that he decided to attack Libya to avoid a civilian blood bath.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
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