Once again, the new guy same as the old guy

[Amskeptic]

Those Libyan freedom fighters are just more deserving of the world's help, I guess. ;)

Obama stated his reasons for selecting Libya.
*Gaddafi has American blood on his hands (Lockerbie)
*Libya is surrounded by vulnerable fledgling efforts at democracy that would be stressed by influx of refugees if Libya gets too ugly.
*They asked for our help.
*We have unique capabilities against Libya that can specifically help in this instance, i.e. we have air power that is uniquely suited for taking out his air force, unlike anything we could do on the Ivory Coast.
*We can do this cleanly without getting bogged since we have coalition assistance, and we **cannot afford** to get too involved.
*Therefore, the calculus says this is an opportunity for us to do the right thing, less on self-interests and more on principle of avoiding massacres and contributing to the fledgling efforts of Arabs to take hold of their own destinies.

So? Yes? No?
Colin

[hambone]

The way I see it, it's more guns pointed at Dark Skins. Plantation Mint Julep Part 25.
Violence begets more violence. Not to mention the ol "Tommy threw mud at the wall, why can't I???"
America would do well to stop bombing other countries.

[Quadratrückseite]

Those Libyan freedom fighters are just more deserving of the world's help, I guess. ;)

Obama stated his reasons for selecting Libya.
*Gaddafi has American blood on his hands (Lockerbie)
*Libya is surrounded by vulnerable fledgling efforts at democracy that would be stressed by influx of refugees if Libya gets too ugly.
*They asked for our help.
*We have unique capabilities against Libya that can specifically help in this instance, i.e. we have air power that is uniquely suited for taking out his air force, unlike anything we could do on the Ivory Coast.
*We can do this cleanly without getting bogged since we have coalition assistance, and we **cannot afford** to get too involved.
*Therefore, the calculus says this is an opportunity for us to do the right thing, less on self-interests and more on principle of avoiding massacres and contributing to the fledgling efforts of Arabs to take hold of their own destinies.

So? Yes? No?
Colin

Pan Am Flight 103 went down 23 years ago - kind of a late response, isn't it?

Libya is a neighbor to Sudan, where the Darfur massacre is occurring. 2.8 million displaced according to the U.N. - 250,000 ended up in Chad, Libya's southern neighbor. In fact, some of those fleeing Darfur escaped to Libya ironically, only to be met with

Sudanese refugees in Libya have sent urgent pleas to the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy. Because of the common border with Sudan, thousands of refugees, especially those fleeing persecution in Darfur, have fled to Libya. Instead of being welcomed as political refugees, the Darfurians now face arbitrary arrest, beatings, and economic exploitation at the hands of the Libyan government and some citizens.

http://www.damanga.org/newsroom/reports ... 01905.html
Not exactly a welcoming country themselves.

I agree it is the right thing to do, but there are a lot of "right things" to do in the world. I think this is more about the oil, and Gaddafi threatening to blow up the oil pipelines. I hope we can do it without getting bogged down, but we seem to have a history of sticking around in these international situations. You're right, we definitely cannot afford to stick around.

[steve74baywin]

I like the title of this thread.
I recall saying something two plus years ago.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, and don't get fooled again. Great song by The Who.
Pride is supposedly not a good thing, so I shouldn't show any, but I do feel I did not get fooled in any way the last election time.
We had plenty of talks about universal, social, medical reform years back. I wonder if any one who was wishing for medical changes had any idea it would involve fining and jailing people for not getting insurance instead of providing to all for free?

[grandfatherjim]

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Libya is #9 on the list of the world's proven oil reserves. Oh, Iraq is #4.
(Egypt is #27, Syria is #33, Bahrain is #66, and Yemen is #30)

Canada should be nervous - # 1 oil supplier to the US. No wonder our prime ministers keep sucking up to the Pres.

[Lanval]

Canada doesn't need to be nervous since it is already a vassal-state of the US; the economies are so entwined (with the balance of power tipped heavily in favor of the US) that "involving the US in Canada" is already done.

On the plus side for Canadians though, we essentially capitulated in the battle for Hollywood.

L.