US to pull jets from Odyssey Dawn?

As a show of strength, the latest from the US on the military mission in Libya falls a wee bit short of convincing. Yesterday, NATO finally accepted operational command of Odyssey Dawn, the air war against Moammar Gaddafi’s armed forces that have not yet stopped the dictator from pushing the rebels into panicked retreats. Today, the US went further and said it would stop flying sorties over Libya after today — unless NATO requested more:

Libyan rebels called for a cease- fire as forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi drove them back for a third day after sandstorms and clouds hindered NATO air strikes and the U.S. said it’s withdrawing all warplanes.

Qaddafi’s fighters must retreat from cities and nearby areas for any cease-fire deal, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel Interim National Council, said in a news conference televised today from their stronghold of Benghazi. He said rebel demands for freedoms must also be met. There was no immediate response to the offer from Qaddafi officials.

The rebels’ move comes one day after Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. jets won’t be flying with NATO forces over Libya after April 2. Mullen said planes would be made available only if requested by NATO. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Congress the U.S. will “significantly ramp down our commitment” to Libya except for electronic warfare, aerial refueling and surveillance.

Rebels have retreated as Qaddafi’s troops regain the initiative after almost two weeks of allied air strikes against them. This week’s recapture of the oil port Ras Lanuf by Qaddafi forces underscored the military weakness of his opponents. Intensive fighting continues around another oil port, Brega, Sky News television reported, adding that rebel and government lines are keeping out of range of each other’s weapons and are 10 to 20 kilometers (16 to 32 miles) apart.

John McCain warns about learning a “bitter lesson” from defeat here, but it almost seems as though we’re already predicting it. Success has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan, and it looks like we’re about to dispute the paternity for Odyssey Dawn.

The demand for a cease-fire on the part of the rebels will certainly go unheeded by Gaddafi, who finally has the upper hand across the board. We’re belatedly discovering that the rebellion more closely resembles an insurgency that is completely unsuited to fight against a trained, professional military. The only hope this had of succeeding was if it triggered massive defections within the military to oppose Gaddafi, and the window for that closed when Gaddafi broke out of Tripoli weeks ago.

Besides, this declaration sounds more aimed at PR and spin than anything else. US warplanes are almost certainly going nowhere. The White House wants to put an arm’s length between the results in Libya and the President, and the best way to do that is to dump the whole problem on NATO. Given the amount of resources at NATO’s disposal for the mission without the US, expect the requests for American sorties to arrive as early as tonight.

The only difference will be that Obama can now hang the failure to topple Gaddafi on NATO rather than shouldering the blame himself, or at least he thinks he can.

LOL. Why would Ghadaffi accept that?

When one side starts losing it needs time to regroup and rearm. But in this particular case the rebels (reportedly on the retreat) issued something that looks like an ultimatum to the winning side, which indeed doesn't make any sense from any point of view. A good general would just ignore it and proceed with the offensive until all the goals are reached. A prolonged, back-and-forth civil war is much worse on the country than a quick, decisive and brutal destruction of enemy's fighting power. Think Fallujah, for example, which at one point in time was a center of rebel activity, and if left untreated it would be manufacturing jihadists until today.

As I see it, the best outcome for Libya would be to have the rebels defeated. It is nearly impossible to create democracy using military means, especially without wide support of the population. History shows that once fighters win they tend to keep fighting someone else, or each other. War is a very undemocratic way of bringing democracy to any country. As the Libyan example demonstrates, you need only a tiny number of "rebels" (a couple thousand) to become a political force and issue orders to UN and NATO. Did anyone ask the remaining tens of millions of Libyans what they want?

you ask: “Why are we there?”

What's the first RULE? “FOLLOW THE MONEY.”

Soros is after the gold - Quadaffi keeps his billions in gold in country - not in Swiss Banks. (People are learning you money is NOT safe in the Swiss vaults. When you need it - it gets ‘frozen.)
the other countries that went along are after the oil.

‘bummer does what his puppet master - Soros - tells him, number one. number two, this fits in with his plan to help establish the Caliphate. He made connections with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt right after he was sworn in...indeed, he went to Egypt for his his FIRST public speech - not in America. He invited the MB to the speech. (Victory celebration - we have the WH?)

Then fermented the uprising to get rid of Mubarak and now the MB are poised to take over.

He FULLY intends/intended to arm the rebels in Lybia, knowing full well there are many trained Al Qaeda with them - who are the ones Quadaffi is after. This whole kerfuffle started when a contingent of Al Q. attacked Tripoli, killed policemen and captured military equipment and ammo. Quadaffi has been turning jihadists over to us and the UK for years. He and Al Q are deadly enemies.

Arm the rebels, hoping we won't know who they really are - and then Al Q/ muzzies take over another country, next to Egypt and even bigger - then the muzzies have a LARGE chunk of Africa in which to reestablish the Caliphate (Don't forget Tripoli used to be, 200 years ago and again 100 years ago, a Caliphate stronghold)

so there's something in it for everyone - except America.

obummer has already given the fighting advantage in Afghanistan to the Taliban. He did that first off, 2 years ago. His new ROE favored the Taliban, tied our troops hands and made them sitting ducks. From the first month, we took DOUBLE the losses - and each month after - than we had before. You remember the headlines. Oh, right, the media suddenly went quiet about our troop losses.

obummer has also been quietly giving back strategic territory in the ‘ghan to the Taliban - complete with ammo and missiles and rockets etc...that has already been used on our troops. You remember THOSE headlines! Oh, right, there weren’t any.

He has handed over the Kunar Province in north eastern Afghanistan - piece meal - to the Taliban. This is where the strategic valleys are that the Taliban used to filter in to Afghanistan from Pakistan. Our troops fought and died in those valleys to prevent this access.

‘bummer has pulled our troops out, spit on their sacrifice (they never had enough men and equipment to really do the job once and for all) - and just handed it all back. Keep in mind, this is the territory that osama considered home - this is where he trained the 9-11 jihardists. And now he has it back - and he walks the Korengal again - and he laughs. ARe you brave enough to know the truth?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WamBeYQeRvE

http://www.captainsjournal.com/2011/02/10/abandoning-the-pech-valley-part-ii/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uj6sRlzgik&feature=fvwrel

Do your homework. Too many of you are still depending on the media for your news. All these actions are related, part of 'bummer's overall pattern. connect to dots - and ALWAYS, when it comes to this gang of anti-American criminals in the WH - Always WATCH THE OTHER HAND.

The population of Libya is 6.4 Million (Google it).

Assuming 50% male, assume 50% between 18 and 60, assume 51% on the Rebel side.

You wind up with ~800K able-bodied men, who could fight for their freedom. Rebels report that they have ~1,000 fighters.

1,000/800,000 = 0.0012%

Less than 1 man in 120,000 has the courage to stand up to overthrow a tyrant. This is a NATION of COWARDS. They want someone else to die for them, because they are to scared to begin to defend themselves.

And this assumes that 49% of the population is fighting against them.

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