Gaddafi sent forces to attack protesters, that he deemed “rebels”, in the process killing many civilians which included the protesters who were not strong enough to fight against the military. As many families in Libya were broken, their homes destroyed, children hurt….the U.S. decides that we should do something about this before it gets worse. So the U.S. pressures other countries to help, creates a no fly zone, now operation is speared by NATO.
To me, this seems like a good thing. We’re attempting to stop a belligerent ruler from mindlessly killing innocent civilians that only want what’s best for their country. However, many in congress are up in arms that the Obama administration did not consult with them before sending air forces to Libya. By law, Pres. Obama does not have to immediately consult Congress and still has time to do so.
Many democrats and some republicans are crying that Obama didn’t consult with them and that we have no interest. I would like to note that we do have interest, economic and foreign policy wise. Lets be frank, Libya controls a portion of the world’s oil. One might say, that’s a small portion exported to the U.S., but considering the mess that is Egypt and the earthquake in Japan, it’s a very valuable portion. It affects foreign policy simply because it’s a neighboring country to Egypt which is going through a transformation. Drama from Libya could spill over into Egypt where we have made gains.
So congress feels left out, they weren’t “consulted”. What does consulting involve anyway? Do they really think consulting would have different results? I don’t think so. Consulting is just another phrase for “sit in a room and talk about it, complain and whine about the deficit, get fodder for 2012 election, take a 2 day break, come back, talk more about the situation, take a 4 hour lunch break, come back, complain some more, and let the president do what he wanted to do“…that’s what consulting is. Meanwhile, more and more innocent civilians would have died while Congress “consulted” with the president.
And what if the Obama administration did consult with Congress…Americans would have been saying, “why didn’t the president do anything to help now?”. Then republicans like Newt Gingrich who want to use Libya as a political issue, would be “angry” at the President for not taking action. Then, he would be criticized as not strong enough.
Come on, we all know the circus routine by now. Those on the left and right that want to drown out the voices of support for the President’s actions will only have so much time in the spotlight. I believe, next week when he addresses the nation about Libya, after the President lines out and explains why we’re there, the consequences of not acting, then voices of support will be louder. But right now, is the time to act, not talk and get political points. This is not comparable to the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and the U.S. is not in control of this operation anymore.
In a sense it’s a non-political version of Vietnam, in another sense it’s a very political version of Vietnam. Regardless; we have seen how both parties prefer to do business and if President Obama miraculously found the worlds largest gold mine in the U.S. and decided to split all of the gold equally to every individual, both parties are going to complain and prevent it from happening. Alas Obama is going to be another “Carter” and we’ll get another “Reagan” afterwards and muck everything up… again.
I agree 100% and not only will they prevent it from happening, but it’d end up being in the hands of whichever lobbyist could lobby the best.
It is comparable to Iraq and Afghanistan because the party of the Commander in chief determines how both sides will react. I guarantee you that if Bush pulls what Obama has that the left and Democrats would pitched a huge fit and the Republicans would have been solidly behind it. In this case, the Democrats and Republicans are pretty much behind this with the fringes on both sides yapping away.
I meant the gravity of concern and effort the U.S. put into Iraq and Afghanistan versus Libya isn’t comparable. But on your general point, I agree.