Obama's Whatever-It-Is

Tuned in to NPR this morning to catch some progressive complaining about Obama’s decision to hit Libya with missiles over the weekend. He said the action was against the law, unconstitutional, and hypocritical, and reminiscent of the Bush “Neo-Con” approach to foreign policy.

I disagree – Bush would not have waited two weeks to see which European nation was willing to take the blame if things went wrong, almost guaranteeing that things will go wrong. The world is going to blame the US regardless. During those two weeks Qaddafi has basically destroyed the rebels ability to wage an effective resistance, reducing them to a handful of strongholds with limited influence. Had US strikes been initiated 2 weeks ago the rebels might have had a chance, but the Vacillator-In-Chief would not commit.

If anything this should remind us of Clinton-era actions: a lathering of Tomahawk cruise missiles with very little substantive effect except to deflect the media’s probing eyes away from his personal affairs at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In this case Obama is relatively scandal free – not for lack of material but rather that the media simply does not want to expose him for the outright awful leader he is. He pulled the same nonsense with Afghanistan – waiting 6 weeks to make a time-sensitive decision to put more boots on the ground in Afghanistan and then shorting McCrystal by 25% of his requested troops. The general did not just pull a number out of thin air – history is already proving he needed every man, but no, Obama knew better, and clearly this tactic of waiting for the rebels to be nearly wiped out before putting in a pittance of support is all part of Obama’s strategy for success, whatever that means, and we don’t know because Obama hasn’t told us. Bush at least had goals and we understood them. Obama, like Clinton, is just firing missiles at soft targets. Maybe he’s hoping – Yes We Can and all that.

If Qaddafi is deposed and the rebels topple the dictatorship it will be a lucky break for Obama and the US at this point. He’ll deserve some small praise for having made the decision at all. Don’t get me wrong – unlike many “progressives” I want our actions to have effect and a positive outcome. It will be very interesting to see how liberals respond to this whether it goes favorably or not. If the guest on NPR is an indicator they are at least starting out consistent.

*Edit - My wife has MSNBC on right now - that annoying Ed show, and he's all for this war. Figures.