print“We are not part of the picture” [in Libya], Ehud Barack told Greta van Susteren, who recounted to him the familiar war-for-Israel-and-oil accusations circulating in some Arab quarters vis-a-vis the offensive in Libya. This, even as the US commits itself to furthering the whims of the seething Arab Street—whoever it comprises, wherever it is, and whatever it wants. American warriors, in arms and in armchairs, seem to believe that repeating the word “rebel” enough times will transform the shady ragtag factions we are fighting for as a princess’s kiss transforms a toad.
Ehud Barack, Israel’s Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister (bio information), has politely applauded NATO and the US for rescuing the Libyans, but he also expresses a conscious thought about the feel-good operation, the kind of thought that will never be floated stateside:
“It’s up to the Arab people to struggle for their rights; to change regime or impose corrections and new procedures in their internal political life.”
If indeed we’re subsidizing “freedom” for [the Libyans] and are fighting their battles—then we’ve also increased their impotence and diminished their initiative. Subsidize individuals because you believe they are helpless—and you’ll get more learned helplessness.
Besides, what are these people? Wards of the American state? Whatever happened to fighting your own revolutions?
Israel will be responding to an attack on its own cities and people. The US, meanwhile, responds to events in countries half a planet away that in no way affect its own people. As you have said – one fights because it wants to fight and the other one fights because it must.
Libya was artificially molded out of
Cynenaica (Benghazi), Tripolitania, and Fezzan – see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrenaica
but now the Anglo-American-UN Empire will wind up selecting some national figurehead while all the tribes jostle for position (as in Afghanistan and Iraq) until such time as the Imperial Coalition gives up or gets bankrupted.
The US is expert at global micromanagement – Austria, for example, went from the Hapsburgs to Hitler thanks to Woodrow Wilson’s meglomania.
“The US is expert at global micromanagement” I can’t agree Myron. The US is very experienced; but, ‘expert’ requires proficiency. Almost everyone we put in, gets kicked out. However, we do keep trying, maybe there’s a prize for that.
Robert G – Sorry – I went from anger to sarcasm. The example of replacing Hapsburgs with Hitler was just how “expert” our micromanaging is. Sometimes, like in the case of Diem, we wind up killing our own puppet!
As I stated in another post, I don’t know who are the good guys and the bad guys in Libya. I don’t see either faction in this Saharan broohaha that is on our side. Even if we could identify such do we need to be there? Even if we should be there do the stumble, fumble and fall leaders of our government know how to conduct a military operation? I see nothing positive coming out of this whole deal.
If not wholly wards of the American state, then certainly of interest to the progressively putrescent West, seeking a reason to expand the brand ‘democracy,’ and to flex NATO incompetence worldwide. It is pretty much assured that Libya – and other stick pins of interest on the map – will exit status quo ante long after the West has ceased to.
“I went from anger to sarcasm.” No question: A problem common to all of us. The sheer amount of stupidity that surrounds us only leaves a choice of one of those two options available.
Today’s language alert is the following: It’s not a war it’s a “Kinetic Military Action”. Yes I realize that a cyber-attack would not be considered a kinetic action in terms of Pentagon usage of the language. However, language is important. The left has a history of manipulating language to help achieve its goals. Korea was just a Police action again under the guise of the UN.
Damn it when you “take out” a country’s command and control system and destroy its Air Force it is WAR! I think calling the Libyan action a Kinetic Military Action is just a little too nuanced for me. These nuanced phrases sound and smell quite a bit like “heffer dust” to my ear and nose!