Sunday, March 20, 2011

Quote(s) of the day and Libya open thread

“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
— Sen. Barack Obama, Dec. 20, 2007


TRIPOLI, Libya — American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in a military intervention on a scale not seen in the Arab world since the Iraq war.

The mission to impose a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone and keep Colonel Qaddafi from using air power against beleaguered rebel forces was portrayed by Pentagon and NATO officials as under French and British leadership.

But the Pentagon said that American forces were mounting an initial campaign to knock out Libya’s air defense systems, firing volley after volley of Tomahawk missiles from nearby ships against missile, radar and communications centers around Tripoli, the capital, and the western cities of Misurata and Surt.



Andrew Sullivan laments:

It's just brutal to have supported Obama's foreign policy for so long, only to see it morph into a multilateral version of McCain's so swiftly. The whiplash is jarring.
(italics, ours)

Except that what Sullivan really meant was... a continuation of Bush's
... but there was no way in hell Sullivan was going to commit that to print.



And for those of you scoring at home, it is precisely 8 years ago to the day that Bush "declared war" on Iraq and we began our bombing campaign of the same country.


From Don Surber:

I have all along wished for Barack Obama’s success because I knew the only way for him to be a successful president would be to adopt the policies of President Bush.

So this silliness about civilian trials for combatants and for closing Gitmo or pulling out of Iraq — all this manure that lefties wallow in — has been cast aside.

Of course.

Obama wants a second term.

We will not re-elect a pussyfooter.

So we have the president joining the allies in Libyan adventure. He did not find the time to break from his Spring Break in Rio to come home and explain to the American people why he is putting our soldiers in harm’s way.

He mimics only Bush’s policies — and not Bush’s class, honor or humility.


O.K., that's all the piling on for now as we have no doubt that our military, the finest on the planet, will carry forth and successfully fulfill their objectives (whatever those are) with a minimum of losses and a minimum of collateral damage to the Libyan populace.

3 comments:

Foxfier said...

Just thought of another thing:
The federal budget still hasn't been passed.

This makes a lovely hammer.

Road Dawg said...

Out-Bushing Bush..,But only the far-lefties will cry "foul"

Harrison said...

Obama has really lied to his base. He did it to himself by tying his hands as to what he would - or would not - do once he was president.

It's different once you sit in the big chair.