Posted on 04/12/2011 1:04:33 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
BRUSSELS -A NATO general sharply rejected French criticism Tuesday of the operation in Libya, saying the North Atlantic military alliance is performing well and protecting civilians effectively.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe had said NATO should be doing more to take out strongman Moammar Gadhafi's heavy weaponry that is targeting civilians in Libya.
Juppe said NATO's actions were "not enough" and insisted the alliance should be firing on the weapons being used by Gadhafi's forces to target civilians in the rebel-held city of Misrata. Juppe spoke on France-Info radio the day after Libyan rebels rejected a cease-fire proposal by African mediators because it did not insist that Gadhafi relinquish power.
"NATO has to play its role in full. NATO wanted to take the military command of the operations," Juppe said.
France's frustration with the stalemate on the ground, where Libyan rebels have struggled to capitalize on Western air attacks, has been echoed across Western capitals.
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
Denmark has pledged two more Sopwith Camels to the mission.
France sure is desperate to steal that oil, poor broke bastards.
What are the measurables the general is using to say things are going well, or not well? This is the most stupid war we’ve ever been in. We are bombing almost at random, killing both combatants and non-combantants in the name of protecting the latter, and patting ourselves on the back for doing so. We can’t even say whose side we are on. Now I know what liberalism applied to military actions looks like. Absurd.
Right. We also can’t even describe who these rebels are and ensure they do not include al qaeda. I’ll admit I didn’t expect obama to get involved in a stupid war like this. Totally unnecessary and foolish. Obama is no bill Clinton.
On the other hand, if it does include Al Qaeda, it’s good that NATO is “protecting” them, like what they did to those tanks. The multinational coalition that couldn’t shoot straight.
Look on the bright side. Chances are, they struck a blow against El Qaeda when they blew up those tanks. They didn’t mean to, but all’s well that ends well.
Walt Disney has from his cryogenic chamber pledged the clown scenes from Dumbo The Elephant.
lol
Now that’s funny!
Libya wants a new muslim leader.
Why don’t we just give them ours?
That would solve two problems.
These are the operative words of the NATO General’s statement:
“I think with the assets we have, we’re doing a great job,”
NATO/America simply hasn’t allocated enough resources to do an effective job. They’re degrading Gadaffy’s forces slowly and methodically, but there’s none of the shock and awe that we saw in Iraq.
There are very legitimate arguments to be made for why the U.S. should have stayed out of Libya completetly. But most will agree that once the decision was made for U.S. airpower to intervene it should have been done in a massive and decisive manner. Obama has turned the Libyan conflict into a stalemate, which will have greater long-term impact on that country than if either Gadaffy had been left alone or if there was a quick overthrow of his regime. We are now guaranteed months of bloodletting and revenge for atrocities committed during this drawn out affair.
Intervening, even going in with the intent to oust or better yet kill Qaddafi is fine, but it's “how” we went about it that will lead to this becoming a mess.
The politically most expedient or lowest risk course of action is often not the one which brings the highest probably or greatest results in an outcome.
Snoopy would be good for this mission, but I think that Lucy might be better. She would hold the football for Qadaffi and he’d come running up to kick the football and she’d pull the football away and kick his raggedy behind.
Snoopy would be good for this mission, but I think that Lucy might be better. She would hold the football for Qadaffi and he’d come running up to kick the football and she’d pull the football away and kick his raggedy behind.
Of course you are general. Your aircraft criss cross the skies of Libya at will without challenge. Your aircraft straffe and bomb at will and you launch missiles from safe distances. Yeah, I'd say you're doing a great job but if I was a commanding general, I wouldn't go around bragging about it. An ROTC cadet could accomplish as much.
F-16s that would be. The Danes have been very busy dropping bombs from them.
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