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.
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.
You can’t blame the Germans refusing to fight another democrat war.
They do already have a sharia-law quasi-nation Kosovo in the center of Europe generating arms, drug, slave and jihadist fraffic as a result of previous democrat war.
This is an epic fail that pretty much destroys NATO’s reputation. Paper tiger.
Obama looks reckless, thoughtless and stupid for getting us involved in this.
He also looks absolutely callous - to throw American blood and treasure into something like this without any apparent thought or reflection on a plan.
What does he care, it isn’t his family’s blood or treasure. Our soldiers and our resources are disposable pawns for the interests and whims of other countries.
Outrageous!!
The Nobel committee must be proud.
Crowning achievement - the breakup of NATO - for someone with no executive experience, he sure has created quite a resume in two years./s
And to think of the reception he got in Germany on his first trip...the “world healer.” How could so many in so many places have been so fooled? I know I wasn’t. Nor was anyone here. Such idiots. We won’t last until 2012, we need him to resign or impeached.
Has this been confirmed by a source other than the Daily Mail?
Europe: I guess it’s better to have the plan before starting the operation. Doh. Gotta remember that.
nobama: Now... how can I make this worse for America without having to think...
I supported a NATO Nuclear Planning Group conference in Florida many years ago. The main focus was getting other NATO members to permit basing Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM) in their Countries. It made herding chickens look like childs play. Al Haig, was 45th on protocol list.
But, how can this be? Didn’t the coalition builder-in-chief put this all together? How could it ever fail???
This is an appalling failure of leadership on our part. I knew 0bama would be a bad President, but when you see it play out it’s really shocking just how bad he is, and how dangerous he is to our country and really to the world. Worse than Carter; worse even than Neville Chamberlain.