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Why can't we just let the Libyans fight it out (...and then make friends with the winners)
The Daily Mail ^ | March 20, 2011 | Peter Hitchens

Posted on 03/20/2011 4:13:01 AM PDT by Scanian

Politics seems to have become a sort of mental illness. We have no bloody business in Libya, and no idea what we hope to achieve there.

We are daily told that we have no money to spare. We have just scrapped a large part of our Navy.

Our Army is stuck in an Afghan war whose point nobody can explain. And now we have set out on a course that could drag us into a long, gory brawl in North Africa.

And yet, when the Prime Minister announces this folly he is praised. Why? Partly it is because we all watch too much TV. Its reports simplify, then exaggerate.

Reporters, much like politicians, like to feel they are helping to make history, and get excited by subjects they knew nothing about until last Wednesday.

Before we know where we are, we are taking sides in quarrels we don’t understand. Who are the Libyan rebels? What do they want? Why do we love them so?

I’ve no idea, and nor has Mr Cameron, as we discovered when he (yes, it was him, not poor William Hague) sent the SAS to see them and they were welcomed with pitchforks and mockery.

The only sensible policy in Libya is to wait and see who wins, and then make friends with them. If you think this heartless, you are of course right. Foreign policy is heartless. Nice countries end up being conquered or going bankrupt. But it may be no more heartless than our kindly interference.

I pray that this episode ends quickly and cleanly. Perhaps it will. But we cannot know. What if our humanitarian bombs and missiles accidentally kill women and children (which is almost certain)? What if air attacks and distant shelling fail to stop Gaddafi’s forces?

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cameron; gaddafi; interference; libya
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1 posted on 03/20/2011 4:13:04 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: Scanian

Kill ‘em all and let God sort it out.


2 posted on 03/20/2011 4:14:11 AM PDT by Sarah-bot
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To: Scanian

Why? Because genocide would happen.

And Quadaffi would kill thousands.


3 posted on 03/20/2011 4:14:31 AM PDT by JaneNC (I)
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To: Scanian

....because this way we can make enemies out of both of them.


4 posted on 03/20/2011 4:14:52 AM PDT by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: Sarah-bot

Unfortunately, that is how I feel. I hope that my heart will soften soon.


5 posted on 03/20/2011 4:15:07 AM PDT by Sarah-bot
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To: Cvengr

Muslims will ALWAYS be our enemies. It is an article of faith with them.

To believe otherwise is to ignore reality.


6 posted on 03/20/2011 4:16:29 AM PDT by Scanian (i)
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To: Scanian

you got that right


7 posted on 03/20/2011 4:18:26 AM PDT by Yorlik803 (better to die on your feet than live on your knees.)
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To: Scanian

And if we just see a change in which tribes are doing the slaughtering? Oh well, declare a success and turn off the cameras.


8 posted on 03/20/2011 4:20:24 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: JaneNC

Then let their filthy rich Arab co-religionists barge in and set things right.

We are overextended as it is. And broke, as is the UK.


9 posted on 03/20/2011 4:21:34 AM PDT by Scanian (i)
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To: Scanian

I don’t believe that we are over extended. We can do a lot more killing. The problem is that we do not have the will power. Afghanistan and Iraq would have been over years ago if we had the will to kill. I say better them then our men.


10 posted on 03/20/2011 4:24:46 AM PDT by Sarah-bot
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To: Scanian

What if our humanitarian bombs and missiles accidentally kill women and children (which is almost certain)? What if air attacks and distant shelling fail to stop Gaddafi’s forces?

Found in the book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

Who are the Libyan rebels? What do they want? Why do we love them so?

A question begging for an answer before we do something stupid, like upset the middle eastern apple cart any more.


11 posted on 03/20/2011 4:24:46 AM PDT by wita
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To: Scanian
He's directly responsible for killing everyone on flight 103.

He's a terrorist that should pay with his life and be example to other would be terrorists what happens to those who go down that path.

Kill Gaddafi and get out. Libyans can do what they want with their country after he's dead be it peaceful or civil war. It's their blood to spend as they please. No more "nation building".

That's my opinion...

12 posted on 03/20/2011 4:27:32 AM PDT by DB
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To: wita

You raised a point that has caused me to appreciate Hobbs. The leviathan is comprises of the peasants and the dictator. The head of the leviathan is the dictator. The body (peasants) are culpable for the crimes of the leviathan, of which they are a part.


13 posted on 03/20/2011 4:28:49 AM PDT by Sarah-bot
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To: DB
Speaking of Lockerbie and for anyone else who's been wondering, click on this link...

If your country doesn't stop Gaddafi today he will kill all of us - and he will kill you too: How the savage assault on Benghazi proved 'ceasefire' was a lie

...then scroll down a bit, and off to the right side is a column with the latest on the wherabouts of the Lockerbie bomber.

14 posted on 03/20/2011 4:30:27 AM PDT by mewzilla (Were members of both political parties in on the Lockerbie bomber deal?)
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To: Scanian
Maybe according to the logic of the left we now have things in an equal court. We were on the wrong side in Bosnia and now we support rebels with ties to Muslim brotherhood. See What To Do In Libya? Arm Both Sides!. I don't think this will have a rosey ending.
15 posted on 03/20/2011 4:30:36 AM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: JaneNC

Genocide is happening every day in American abortion mills and it doesn’t seem to bother the liberals.

For Democracy?? Come on now-—does ayone really believe a Democracy will last past the first Muslim election?

Whichever side wins , they will still hate the Western countries, and turn on us like rabid dogs.

We needed to let them solve this problem themselves.

62 Million dollars worth of Tomahawks wasted. If they wanted to get rid of Hussein they should have shot them at him.


16 posted on 03/20/2011 4:31:41 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: JaneNC
We know Gaddafi is an enemy of the West, a mercurial nut who if he survives the revolution is likely to turn against Western interests. We know he's killed Americans before (in Berlin and over Scotland). We know, too, that he can be frightened. He was after President Reagan attacked him in retaliation for Gaddafi's links to terrorist who killed Americans in a Berlin disco. He backed down every President Reagan authorized US forces into the Gulf of Sidra. We know too that he gave up his nuclear weapons program after President George W. Bush overthrow Saddam. Gaddafi's been a long time enemy of the US. Like Saddam, Gaddafi caused problems for the US for a long time, not just under Obama.

Like you, I don't think this is the time, when Gaddafi threatens genocide, for hand wringing or ambivalence.

17 posted on 03/20/2011 4:32:05 AM PDT by elhombrelibre ("I'd rather be ruled by the Tea Party than the Democratic Party." Norman Podhoretz)
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To: JaneNC

Genocide has been going on in Dharfur for many years and not a soul has done squat to stop it. This war is not about genocide.

Do you think no Libyans are being killed by our bombs?


18 posted on 03/20/2011 4:33:36 AM PDT by dforest
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To: armymarinemom

We are on the right side now. In the future, the rebels may turn out to be bad, but if you use that logic then you would never help anyone. Anyone could turn out bad. I that why you don’t give to the needy?


19 posted on 03/20/2011 4:33:39 AM PDT by Sarah-bot
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To: elhombrelibre

Many have been slaughtered already. It is past time.
We should have bombed when the rebels held the oil fields.

Since it is done, it is time to deal with that reality.


20 posted on 03/20/2011 4:34:42 AM PDT by JaneNC (I)
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