Posted on 03/16/2011 2:02:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The call by the Arab League for Western military intervention in an Arab state — in this case asking that a UN “no-fly zone” be imposed over Libya – is not only without precedent but it puts in formal terms what Governor Palin stated three weeks ago should have been America’s response to the political and humanitarian crisis now unfolding there.
The former GOP vice presidential candidate was being interviewed on February 23rd on national television by Sean Hannity on a range of issues. On the Libya crisis, she proposed a no-fly-zone to protect the armed and un-armed opposition to the Qaddafi regime. Mrs. Palin’s formulation had been blogged about for nearly a week when it was echoed by the man who, before the Iraq war, had led the Iraq democratic movement in exile, Ahmed Chalabi.
A long-time foe of Saddam Hussein who has emerged as a leading figure in Iraq’s democratically elected legislature. Mr Chalabi recounted in the Wall Street Journal how President George H. W. Bush’s 1991 call for a popular uprising against Saddam had been heeded by the Iraqi people, only to have Saddam then murder some 30,000 of them from helicopter gunships while the Western world stood by.....
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Plenty of jets in the Arab world. I suggest they use them.
just more musings from a not serious candidate. /s
Those are for show: Only Western Air Forces are for fighting except for one’s own people.
The UN doesn’t have an air force (yet); I don’t know why nations depend upon the UN. The sovereign states in the Arab world do. If they felt so much empathy for the rebels......they can kick in.
I disagree with Palin on this one. We need to stay out of it. We are broke.
I say it would make for some real-world training. I don’t have a problem with it.
The Arab League was founded in Cairo in 1945 by Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan (Jordan, as of 1950), and Yemen.
Palin was exactly WRONG in calling for a no fly zone as that would only encourage other uprisings in the middle east. If you guys think that these rioters in the middle east are looking for democracy you’re smoking some really good stuff! If they win so does the Muslim brotherhood and you will see radical Islam sweep across most of the oil producing states like a wildfire. Much as I hate to say it but we should have been supporting Q-daffy and the other dictators in the middle east not encouraging revolt. I would love to see Q-daffy get what’s coming to him but not at the expense of destabilizing the entire region. Also, do we really need another place for our young men to die in for no good reason? We already have two and it is costing us a fortune in both money and lives.
Members of the Arab League have planes. It’s their part of the world; they should do it. It will get us nowhere. They will still hate us.
All that the main European powers should’ve done is threaten to shoot down any Libyan Air Force plane that dared to take off and the pilots would’ve flown their planes to Egypt for asylum.
But then again, not even Gaddafi takes the Euros seriously — they depend on his oil. What the Euros really wanted is for big bad US to do their dirty work. No Euro-weeny wants to see their Muslims protest in the streets.
I wonder, has palin detailed her knowledge of exactly who the 'rebels' are, of who backs them of what their agenda is or of how they will govern?
Has she detailed exactly what the benefit of an exorbitantly expensive, necessarily open-ended NFZ would be to the people of our country?
Has she proposed what to do about attack helicopters, which are not grounded effectively by a NFZ?
Has she discussed what we would/should do if, as in the Balkans, one of our planes goes down?
Has she explained why we should intervene in Libya, as opposed to the dozen or so other rebellions against totalitarian regimes that are being waged around the world?
The answer to all the above is "no".
I guess it's pretty difficult to tweet all that.
Tweet this: Gaddafi uses jets to bomb Libyan citizens.
Oh, let's spend a few billion, shoot down a couple of planes, kill a few people, maybe lose one or two of our own for 'some real-world training'. I mean, it's not as if our guys haven't gotten any 'real-world training' over the last few years...
Idiotic.
What I would advocate is sending B-2’s to take out most of their air assets and some of their ground assets. I mean quafdaffy cant have that many targets! Then, let the Europeans via NATO do the clean-up with a no fly zone, since they benefit from Libya’s oil the most.
Why not intervene in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain? Or China for that matter when they kill their own? Or Russia when they crack down in the caucuses? Or India? Or Pakistan? Or half a dozen African countries?
Please be specific and detailed in your answer.
I agree with you in that the wisdom of a No-fly zone is debatable at best.
Unfortunately, Obama with his dithering, or lack of a coherent position is getting the US the worst of both worlds, we still encourage the uprisings, while convincing the rebels we are not on their side, and convincing the current despots that we are not on theirs. Thus at our current muddle we are likely to have no friends in the region (and possibly not even for temporary rent).
Palin is at least taking a position.
And, if she were CiC, it would be the wrong one.
Sorry, I don’t agree that its the wrong position.
“The UN doesn’t have an air force (yet); I don’t know why nations depend upon the UN. I disagree with Palin on this one.”
I agree completely.
If the Useless Nations wants an air force, rent one. Ol’ Mo’s got mercs flying for him. There’s plenty of perfectly good aircraft out there and there’s plenty of pilots who will fly them.
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