Posted on 03/22/2011 6:53:59 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Deep divisions between allied forces currently bombing Libya worsened today as the German military announced it was pulling forces out of NATO over continued disagreement on who will lead the campaign.
A German military spokesman said it was recalling two frigates and AWACS surveillance plane crews from the Mediterranean, after fears they would be drawn into the conflict if NATO takes over control from the U.S.
The infighting comes as a heated meeting of NATO ambassadors yesterday failed to resolve whether the 28-nation alliance should run the operation to enforce a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone, diplomats said.
Yesterday a war of words erupted between the U.S. and Britain after the U.K. government claimed Muammar Gaddafi is a legitimate target for assassination.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Thank you very much for posting this again.
It bears repeating lest we forget.
Caddy: "Barack baby...you teed up on an addled duck egg"
I’m not saying it won’t be a disaster or turn into one. I’m just saying 4 days in is too soon to tell. What if Qadaffi is killed or deposed tomorrow? None of us know what will happen. Anything can happen. I remember how 4 days in to Afghanistan and Iraq the media was already declaring both to be failures and inevitable US defeats. How the operations were already botched.
I have no love for Obama and I’m perfectly willing to go after him on this. I just think we should at least wait and see what happens. If it goes bad there won’t any room for him to hide, there will plenty of time to go after him, and he’ll have plenty of time to fill out his 2013 bracket while watching Romney, Huckabee, Gingrich or Palin on ESPN.
I just don’t see the rush.
One thing I will go after him now for is that his is 100% unconstitutional and the GOP should go after him on that immediately. The House should call Gates, CLinton, Mullen, etc... up for testimony immediately. He’s launched an unconstitutional war and that should be taken care of. Go after on that, not on the results or consequences.
Libya is another community Obama can’t organize.
This is a military operation now. It appears to have shocked certain people that a nice, sterile "no-fly" zone could actually involve taking out the opposition, although no one who watched Iraq could possibly have been mistaken in the matter. It appears to be surprising people who should know better that military operations work best in a strict hierarchy with a single individual making the decisions at the top. They don't work well by committee.
Mr. B. Hussein 0bama is the President of the United States. What he needs to do is declare U.S. interests and pursue them. Not UN interests, not idiotic R2P internationalist theory, but what the people who are doing the shooting expect to accomplish. With any sort of leadership the forces in theater could crush Gaddafi in days. With no leadership, this happens.
Collective security is only as strong as the determination of its constituent members allows. Here it has failed. It has failed through incompetent leadership, through each of the "allies" if one can use that word, pursuing his own separate interests. It has failed because the arrogant, grinning fools besotted with "soft power" and diplomatic solutions now find themselves actually in charge of military activity instead of second-guessing and Viewing With Alarm, and they aren't up to the job.
This was supposed to be a slam-dunk, a chance for an effeminate, self-absorbed Caesar to ride the lead chariot in front of real soldiers in the triumphal parade. Given the preponderance of pure power it would take someone of fantastic incompetence to screw it up. Mailing it in from Rio, 0bama managed even that.
What 11th_VA is saying is what I'm reading here in Germany, too.
The bottom line looks to be that Italy and Norway won't do anything unless NATO has upper command of the operation, while some countries feel that NATO, because of it's action against muslims in Afghanistan, would be bad PR for the muslim rebels in Libya.
Reading between the lines, it looks like there is a push to bring Qatar and the UAE into the forefront, but the UAE is dragging its heels. Obama has said that the US is going to drop it's command role after the initial strikes to take down Libya AA capacity and no one seems to know who will fill the void.
The whole cluster...k can becomes apparent when you read that France calls the operation "Harmattan". the British call it "Ellamy" and the US call it "Odyssey Dawn".
I think that Germany is pulling ships from the Mediterranean because it now appears that NATO ships will be used to enforce a blockade of Libya. IOW mission creep.
Merkel has sufferred some very embarrasing scandals such as her heir apparent and defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (AKA zu Googleberg) having been caught out as amateurishly plagiarizing his doctor thesis and a vicious round of fingerpointing between her government and automakers after the new introduction of E10 biofuel was shown to damage or not run in some older cars.
She has a very big state election coming up Sunday and just doesn't need the risk of another display of ineptitude right now.
These are just my thoughts on the matter.
Well in all honesty it IS hard to land in a sandstorm..
Why wouldn't Obama want to lead this coalition? As a senator, he gained so much experience!
FactCheck: Campaign prevented committee meetings, not rules Obama said that he did not convene any policy hearings as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on European Affairs because “the issues of Afghanistan, the issues of Iraq, critical issues like that don’t go through my subcommittee because they’re done as a committee as a whole.”
FACT CHECK: An Obama adviser acknowledged in March that Obama’s presidential candidacy prevented him from calling hearings, saying to ABC News: “The record is what it is. He didn’t become chairman of that subcommittee until January of 2007. The fact is that he made his announcement for president of the US in February of 2007. So, he had other things on his mind.”
Source: FactCheck.org on 2008 first presidential debate-Boston Globe Sep 26, 2008
At least he's consistent--he has other things on his mind now, too.
Source: 2007 Democratic primary debate on “This Week” Aug 19, 2007
But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
Source: Speech at 2008 Democratic National Convention Aug 27, 2008
Meanwhile, in Paris: Honh! Honh! Eet worked! NATO ees no more, and they will all blame zat eediot Obama!
Meanwhile, in Washington: Hmph. Germans are all poopy pants, anyway. It’s all their fault that there’s an Israel.
Can. Of. Worms.
President Sputnik strikes again.
OBAMA: In ten years, we can reduce our dependence so that we no longer have to import oil from the Middle East or Venezuela. Number one, we need to expand domestic production and that means telling the oil companies the 68 million acres that they currently have leased that they’re not drilling, use them or lose them.
Source: 2008 third presidential debate against John McCain Oct 15, 2008
Source: Gov. Palin’s press release, “Pleased with Obama’s Plan” Aug 4, 2008
This is the guy who got us into this war for oil.
That ain’t fair (accurately quoting a lying lib)!
Mine is the Presbyterian Yidish.
:)
I know. I must be a racist. :(
...and this happened on Tuesday...0bambi somewhere in South America...NATO falls apart.....Evil doers world wide happy tonight...
I have to refine this comment.
Although that was the title of the article I read it looks like Germany is pulling it's ships out from under NATO command rather than from the Med.
The Germans don't want to commit forces to a military enforcement of a weapons embargo.
It hasn't been determined if the ships will leave the Med.
They were there for anti-terrorism AWACS duty.
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