Libya: Just Another Police Action?
My dad was KIA in Korea. Not directly relevant, I admit, but President Truman observed:
Q. Mr. President, would it be correct, against your explanation, to call this a police action under the United Nations?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes. That is exactly what it amounts to.
Some of you readers may not be concerned with ancient history, but I see a connection of sorts. Truman – the President who dropped the bombs couldn’t use the word, and we yet again have a White House that plays with words concerning Libya.
Rhodes said. “Obviously that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end.”
A bit earlier Jonn noted a poll that said that 17 percent of Americans see President Barack Obama as a strong and decisive military leader?
Why even that many? Burke observed:
“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
I’ll add, before anyone else does, we no longer teach – or care much about – history.
Category: Politics
Well…, in some schools, the best, its still tought, but no one explains what it means and what it costs. If you explain it, you might offend someone. To many young adults and even adults, the world is just one big video game, a can of Dew and a do over…
“I’ll add, before anyone else does, we no longer teach – or care much about – history.”
Real History seems to becoming very rare. Alas …
Watching Beck for almost two years now, the reading I’ve done to test whether he’s blowing smoke or not, concerning the views of the Founding Fathers and how they arrived at them, I’ve learned lots of History. While I’ve not had time to meticulously exam his position for errors, I’ve not found a factual one yet.
And I thought I was a fair student of History before I started.
OS54 #2: Perhaps I should have let it be known that I simply don’t watch TV ‘news’. I know who Glen Beck is, but nothing about his positions. YMMV.
Aside: I do know real students of history, but I don’t even play one on the web.
I have three small children at home and I make sure they know not only history, but also I make sure that atleast my 8yr old understands (at her level) what is happening in the world and what I believe the mistakes are.
I dont know how much of a minority I am in that I assume responsability for my children understanding the world (I leave the spelling lessons to my wife though).
Welcome to 1965.
It sure looks like a Viet Nam start to me. I just hope 30 years down the road if we are still there the US does not lose it. Like Viet Nam was lost to the enemy. That will cause another huge vacuum for the area.
The issue no longer is whether Obama is just plain incompetent. That matter has been confirmed repeatedly.
The issue now is who, other than the loyal opposition in the Republican Party, is going to call him out on it?
It’s reaching critical mass, and someone better do it.
This is not an argument for or against interventionism, but about this particular intervention. What is our goal? What is our objective? Please explain Mr. President.
I highly doubt this could even turn into anything like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or even something like the Phillipine insurrection. A military campaign where we take sustained casualities. The question is do you want to commit our limited resources to this expedition? Do we know who the opposition even is? Pretty simple questions if you ask me.
And WTF is Kinetic Military Action? What a we hurling at Libya, asteroids and space junk? Sounds like something out of a SciFi novel. This PC crap is getting too stupid.
Kinetic Military Action doesn’t mean anything, it’s a jargon tinted make-me-up designed to be both reassuringly noncommittal and assertively official. I’m glad we rolled out the air power to stop the coming massacre but the way this has been handled is bananas. This from a guy who voted for Obama. I’ve never seen, nor can I recall, a President who has committed the American military to the battlefield with less ceremony or clearly defined goals. It’s like it was something barely scheduled between “Lunch @ 1200 with Chief of Staff” and “Video conference @1330 with Chilean President.”
Language, language, language. They control it. What is and is not is determined by them via the media their complicit and willing organ. Seen the serial show The Outer Limits?
To assume Barrack Hussein Obama could commit bloody murder with a steak knife in full view of the “press corps(e)” and be found guilty would be folly nowadays. Until he’s out of office and a real target for blame is installed via the other apparatus we are well and truly screwed…MAYBE less so in 2012, but once again, it IS merely the other side of the same entity. Federal Governance.
NSOM in #10: You’re right, there is no defined goal or plan to attain anything. He tells us there is no way he will commit ground troops to this, yet before he even says it, 2200 Marines from the 26th MEU are sent to the waters off Libya. As others have pointed out, you don’t send Marines off the shores of Tripoli unless you intend to use them. Now, who are we going to believe; him or our lying eyes?
I find myself having to correct my son on history he’s just suposedly “learned” in school…..
No boots on the ground? Don’t you believe it for a second. I can guarantee, right now, that their are American servicemen on the ground in Libya right now. Directing aircraft, liaisoning with rebels on the ground, etc. Polititions lie, and this more lies more any other I have been witness to.
#14,
Well Ham said absolutely no military personnel on the ground and I believe him. He was very specific to say military though which leaves a really big hole for CIA Special Activities guys who are almost all former SF guys and retain all the capabilities of a military special operations unit.
#13
I know what you mean OT, I’ve been doing it for years with my kids. It’s worth the effort though, they’ll be ahead of the reality curve as they mature, avoiding many of the doubts and pitfalls I encountered as I ‘came out of the dark’.
As far as history is concerned, my parents gladly let me read books left and right as I was growing up. They’d even yell at me to turn out the light and go to sleep on school nights when they’d catch me up at 11PM or midnight still reading. And, to this day, I still read whenever I can. I have learned a lot over the years about the world and how it works simply by reading history. And now, I’m going back to school and finding myself knowing more about many subjects in my history classes than the professors who hold the degrees in them!