When Obama goes to war illegally and without the necessary, albeit meaningless, formality of the congressional process, they call it a developing “doctrine.” (See the meandering of the CSM, here.) No doubt, Chris Matthews will experience one of his daytime nocturnal emissions over America’s intervention in Libya. You know how indecently aroused Matthews gets every time Obama shows “fortitude.” As allied air forces went into action over Libya, today, Saturday, the media, neocon and neoliberal alike, were aflutter. Yippee: lights, camera, and shock-‘n-awe action. Again. Recall, during the invasion of Iraq, most liberals opposed the unilateral nature of Genghis Bush’s actions. Now that “112 Tomahawk cruise missiles have struck over 20 targets inside Libya,” in what liberals consider a multilateral, “limited” action (here), all’s good.

According to MSNBC.com (here), “American ships and aircraft stationed in and around the Mediterranean Sea did not participate in initial French air missions, but the U.S. was preparing to a launch a missile attack on Libyan air defenses, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the unfolding intervention. One official said the U.S. intended to limit its involvement — at least in the initial stages — to helping protect French and other air missions by taking out Libyan air defenses.” [My emphasis]

COL. JACK JACOBS disagrees with the “assumption … that the margin of difference is air power, and that were it not for Qaddafi’s attack aircraft the rebels would win.” He predicts that “the rebels’ other weaknesses will not be addressed merely by slowing or even stopping the government’s pressure on them,” and that ‘confined to a relatively small area, they may become something of a rump Eastern Libya under UN protection, but it now seems unlikely that they will prevail in the near term.”

Jacobs’ prognosis is for those neocons and neoliberals who entertain the folly that this intervention is not as futile and unconstitutional as those that went before. Then again, most of what the Federal Frankenstein does is either unconstitutional, immoral, illegal, or all of the above.

Jacobs has also confirmed what we all know: The “liberated” Egyptians have a very capable air force. Ditto Saudi Arabia. But are the Arabs doing anything in the cause of a military operation the Arab League instigated? Of course not.

UPDATE I (March 20): Murder by majority approval—unilateral, multilateral; UN or USA—is still murder.

UPDATE II: Behold: A total of four Qatari war planes are moving into position over Libya, reports Al Arabiya. The United Arab Emirates is also scheming on some participation. Slowly.

UPDATE III: An interesting take on the Tripoli offensive from Nebojsa Malic:

“Colonel Gadhafi has maintained that the rebellion was actually orchestrated from the West, and that he was fighting both the Empire and al-Qaeda. … A hint of confirmation could be found in a fawning portrait of rebel fighters in the March 13 Washington Post. One exemplary rebel interviewed by reporter Laila Fadel turns out to be a veteran of the Iraqi insurgency. One of his brothers blew himself up to kill U.S. Marines. Another is an al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan. But ‘Abu Sultan’ says he disapproves of his brother’s al-Qaeda ways, wants a ‘civilian government with justice, freedom, and a constitution,’ and though he considers this ‘a Libyan fight’ would very much like a no-fly zone and foreign intervention. Make of that what you will.”

The whole adventure in Libya is politically as uninteresting as it is familiar.

UPDATE IV: BHO’S TRIUMVIRATE OF TROLLS. Justin Raimondo on the “triumvirate of women”—or trolls in pantsuits—in BHO’s administration that has pushed for a humanitarian war.

UPDATE V (March 21): I really have very little to say. I despair. This country, I’ve concluded, is home to some of the stupidest people on earth. Even the Arabs are smart enough to look after their own interests, and steer clear of interfering in Libya. The neocons are faulting BHO’s adventure in Libya (for its lateness), while defending the overthrow of Saddam. The liberal nation-builders are behind BHO, but are having a hard time distinguishing themselves from the hated neoconservatives. And for good reason. All media seem to believe that repeating the word “rebel” time and again will transform the shady ragtag factions we are fighting for as a princess’s kiss does a toad.

I see that after an initial verbal orgy in support of the rioting Egyptians, fewer libertarians are celebrating the beauty of Egyptian democracy. Just in time: In Egypt, “Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian presidential candidate and Nobel laureate,” was mauled by a mob on his way to vote in a referendum.

At the National Journal they estimate that,

… the United States’ part in the operation could ultimately hit several billion dollars — and require the Pentagon to request emergency funding from Congress to pay for it. The first day of Operation Odyssey Dawn had a price tag that was well over $100 million for the U.S. in missiles alone. And the U.S. military, which remains in the lead now in its third day, has pumped millions more into air- and sea-launched strikes targeting air-defense sites and ground-force positions along Libya’s coastline.
The ultimate total that the United States spends will hinge on the length and scope of the strikes as well as on the contributions of its coalition allies. But Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said on Monday that the U.S. costs could “easily pass the $1 billion mark on this operation, regardless of how well things go.”