Your unauthorized Libyan military kinesiology update (UPDATED)

(please scroll down for update)





We're all neo-cons now, brother!


So, it looks like Gaddafi is out. Good news, right? Sure is, but of course the $64,000 question is who/what is going to replace he and his regime.

(ed. note: One of the great things regarding blogging about our military adventureism in Libya is that you could spell the dude's name any ol' damn way you wanted and no one would question it. Awesome, right?)


At the end of the day, however, we're wondering precisely what U.N. sanctions Libya was in violation of and what direct threat they posed to our country.

And perhaps most importantly, we're left wondering by what authority the Commander-in-Chief was waging war because it sure as hell didn't come through the usual channels, i.e., Congress. Now, we know that there was quite a bit going on here stateside but that Congress could not muster anything but the feeblest of protest and demand for accountability is not encouraging for the Republic.




But you know what? Screw it. Let's party.

Who's up for a little Bushian, neo-con bellicosity and triumphalism? Formerly anti-war liberals, that's who.

Check out the gloat-fest over at Left Coast Rebel, here. The irony of celebrating domestic unilateralism as the method of ridding an overseas strongman will not be lost on you.

And if these Congressional-free, newly-minted adherents to neo-conservatism are being consistent, they will be in full-throat for the bombs to begin dropping on Damasacus right quick, now - so let's hear it!



(UDATE #1):

From the L.A. Times: White House touts Libya strategy

Wait. There was a strategy?

After taking months of heat from both political parties for its decision to assist in a NATO-led mission in Libya, the Obama administration was not only pleased with the results but also eager to tout the strategy, crediting it with weakening Moammar Kadafi’s forces over time while giving rebel forces time to regroup.

And the administration offered a response to criticism that Obama’s plan lacked an endgame in Libya: “Six months is not a long time to bring down a 42-year dictatorship,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security advisor for strategic communications, in a telephone interview.

“Over time, all the pressure on Kadafi built up because we were destroying his forces on the ground while denying him ability to replenish them, so he was getting steadily weaker and at the same time the opposition was getting better organized,” Rhodes said.

Sorry, pal, 6 months is a long time when the Commander-in-Chief said this conflict would last days not weeks. But let's not talk past each other here as what is really at issue is that the President embarked upon this overseas adventure without approval from Congress while hiding behind a 60, then 90-day grace period in the War Powers Act. And when we raced right past those deadlines, the White House had the temerity to tell us that everything was on the up and up because NATO was not engaged in any actual, you know, "hostilities".

And then came all the intermittent non-sense regarding just what was our M.O. or "strategy": "Protecting civilians", then "Going after military installations, then "taking out infrastructure" before returning to "protecting civilians". Change from day to day depending upon the circumstance and the convenience when what it was all along but the administration knew was a political loser: "regime change".

When your predecessor actually sought and was granted authorization for "regime change" while you didn't even bother to ask, it just might remind people of what it was they thought they despised that administration for and who needs the potential of that boomeranging back and knocking your adminstration upside the head.

That's right: The Obama adminstration out-W'ed W.

So, the muddle described above and which for brevity's sake we will refer to from here on out as "leading from behind" is now this country's "strategy" for removing the bad actors in the Middle East. Good to know. A far cry from the Powell Doctrine we suppose so how about neo-con lite and doing just the minimum to make sure no one at home and certainly no one in a compliant media is making too much of a fuss over.

Mr. Obama is proving imperial presidencies aren't really all that difficult to pull off if you're committed to your craft and no one is paying any attention.