Defense Secretary: No National Interests In Libya. Hillary Clinton: Yeah, But Libya Is The Same As 9/11


I don’t watch the Sunday talk shows because rarely is anything of substance discussed or revealed on them. I suppose fifteen years ago they set the tone for the upcoming week’s media coverage, but today they are a superfluous exercise that has little value beyond providing a subsidy to the hair spray industry.

Sometimes, though, an interview comes along that is so disastrous that it has to be commented upon. Today’s joint appearance on Meet the Press by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was just one of those occurrences.

From today’s edition of Meet The Press:

MR. GREGORY:Secretary Gates, Is Libya in our vital interest as a country?

MR. GATES: No, I don’t think it’s a vital interest for the U.S., but we clearly have interests there, and it’s a part of the region which is a vital interest for the U.S.

then Hillary jumps in blubbering

SEC’Y CLINTON:Well, but, but, but then it wouldn’t be fair as to what Bob just said. I mean, did Libya attack us? No. They did not attack us. Do they have a very critical role in this region and do they neighbor two countries — you just mentioned one, Egypt , the other Tunisia — that are going through these extraordinary transformations and cannot afford to be destabilized by conflict on their borders? Yes.

There you have our policy in a nutshell.

This is sort of extraordinary. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a SecDef admit we’ve started killing people, even benighted foreigners, without some kind of vital US interest at stake. I’d actually go farther than Gates. I don’t think we even have a tangential interest in Libya. Contra Clinton, what we’ve done in the past week has done more damage to regional stability than anything Qaddafi has undertaken since 1990.

But wait, there’s more.

At first blush I decided to blog what everyone else had blogged, to wit, the Gates admission. But this statement by Clinton followed.

You know, we asked our allies, our NATO allies, to go into Afghanistan with us 10 years ago. They have been there, and a lot of them have been there despite the fact they were not attacked. The attack came on us as we all tragically remember. [Emphasis mine] They stuck with us. When it comes to Libya , we started hearing from the UKFranceItaly , other of our NATO allies. This was in their vital national interestThe UK and France were the ones who went to the Security Council and said, “We have to act because otherwise we’re seeing a really violent upheaval with a man who has a history of unpredictable violent acts right on our doorstep.” So, you know, let, let’s be fair here. They didn’t attack us, but what they were doing and Gadhafi ‘s history and the potential for the disruption and instability was very much in our interests, as Bob said , and seen by our European friends and our Arab partners as very vital to their interests.

This is little short of stunning. Our alleged Secretary of State comparing the situation in Libya to the 9/11 attacks. Our allies went with us to Afghanistan because of Article 5 of the NATO Charter was invoked by the NATO membership in the aftermath of 9/11. No such attack was carried out upon a NATO member by Libya. Beyond that, our NATO allies have hardly carried the brunt of the fight in Afghanistan. It is not for nothing that ISAF is said to stand for “I Saw Americans Fight.” If we were going along with Britain, France, and Italy to help them protect their national interests we should have limited our role to providing logistics — such as aerial refueling, intelligence and command-and-control support, not on the leading edge of the attack.

But going back to the main point, does our Secretary of State really think what happened in Libya is even vaguely comparable to what happened on 9/11? Or is she simply spinning a typically Clintonian lie to try to divert attention from the fecklessness of this administration? Is she a knave or a poltroon?


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25 Comments Leave a comment

Hillary is both knave and a poltroon

fpete13527 (Diary) Sunday, March 27th at 7:54PM EDT (link)

Great points in this cluster interview and cluster “operation”.

Secretary of State?

grammy1 Monday, March 28th at 9:36AM EDT (link)

Her answer sounds mighty like our former Secretary of Defense . . . don’t ya think? . . . yes, I do. Maybe she is really a Rummy wanna’be . . .
Jeanie

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. Edward R. Murrow

 
 

Question?

ceili_dancer (Diary) Sunday, March 27th at 8:05PM EDT (link)

If we can’t call it a cluster f—-, could we call it a kinetic copulation? It would sum up the foriegn policy, scratch that, this administrations policy in any and everything it touches.

 

Several someones at State

aesthete (Diary) Sunday, March 27th at 8:21PM EDT (link)

and Defense are going to have to fall on their swords for this misbegotten operation. Tell you one thing, I’d hate to be Gates post-interview…

“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke

Bob may be looking for a way out.

rickbull Sunday, March 27th at 10:42PM EDT (link)

If I were Obama’s Defense Secretary, I’d sure be looking for an exit strategy about right now.

WE ARE THE 53% (who actually pay taxes).

 
 

I smell a resignation. Maybe two?

Marcus_Traianus (Diary) Sunday, March 27th at 9:06PM EDT (link)

Actually, this is one of the first statements Gates has made I agree with. He could have only have topped it by telling Gregory he had to go and speak with the President.

We have the LFIG, AQIM, Saudi’s Chechens and everyone else we are fighting around the world flooding into Libya. This is all being picked up by our Intel, so the entire administration knows it. It’s CYA time and they are all running like a bunch of rats on the sinking SS Obama.

Meanwhile, we are going to get a speech from Golf King tomorrow? Really? On what? What could he possibly says that doesn’t contradict facts on the ground or affirmations mad by his own administration?

“Both of our political parties, at least the honest portion of them, agree conscientiously in the same object—the public good; but they differ essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers; the other, by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is right, time and experience will prove.”.Thomas Jefferson

LOL...Golf King? More like the Bunker Baron.

blooch Sunday, March 27th at 10:45PM EDT (link)

Let’s see him get out of this sand trap.

He might pull a cool, new acronym out of the bag tomorrow…or maybe “The NATO Charter is a living document”, but I think he’ll try to flail his way out with the trusty Previous Administration wedge.

“Lieutenant Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”

 
 

Time to support Amash and Johnson's RECLAIM bill

enrique Sunday, March 27th at 10:47PM EDT (link)

We need to send our support to Reps. Amash and Johnson to end our military involvement in Libya. The whole affair is unconstitutional and completely nutty. Even the administration admits that we have no reason to be backing rebels who may or may not be the types of people we are working to defeat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

http://amash.house.gov/press-release/amash-announces-bill-halt-libyan-strikes-until-congress-approves

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one striking at the root.” Henry David Thoreau

Amash has hit the ground running

Getting_Back_to_Basics Sunday, March 27th at 11:27PM EDT (link)

In just a couple of short months, Amash has an impressive record of supporting the Constitution. He’s doing a fantastic job as a freshman.

 
 

Gates may be the most honest person in the administration

Getting_Back_to_Basics Sunday, March 27th at 10:53PM EDT (link)

You’ve written an excellent post. Gates is only carrying water for this ludicrous adventure to a certain point — he clearly does not think the U.S. should be involved andhe does not appear to be interested in subverting U.S. sovereignty to the U.N. any further. He publicly said before the attacks on Libya that this would be, in so many words, a fools errand, He also said clearly that it would be an act of war, which it is. In the past week he has even acknowledged that the orchestration of this action is being done “on the fly.” Now granted, if he is deep down truly troubled by this, perhaps he should have resigned rather than execute this foolish action, but kudos for him for being honest.

As for Hillary, she looked like she wanted to do that interview about as much as she wanted a root canal.

'Most Honest'?

romeg Monday, March 28th at 7:12AM EDT (link)

I’d submit that he’s the ONLY honest person in this administration.

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C. S. Lewis

Remnants of an honest administration

cpa2222 Monday, March 28th at 10:07AM EDT (link)

Remember who appointed Gates in the first place. Maybe, like Darth Vader, at the end there is some honesty left in the man. He should do the honest thing now, and resign from the worst (and most deceitful) administration in American history

“We are one generation away from a return to the dark ages, if good men don’t act responsively and vote out the liberals and humanists.”

 
 

Gates and Clinton remind me of a that Children's song:

yoyo (Diary) Monday, March 28th at 9:28AM EDT (link)

“There’s a Hole in my Bucket”

Gates is “Henry” and Clinton is “Liza”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There’s_a_Hole_in_My_Bucket

Nemo me impune lacesset
“No one will provoke me with impunity!”
=============================
Pukin’ Dogs – The Fighting 143
Sans Reproache
=============================
The ‘yoyo’ replaced my cigarettes January 22, 2006….

 

Gates was only one on Obama's Libya call

uselogic Monday, March 28th at 3:13PM EDT (link)

who had any military experience. All other NSC members present, including the Rio vacationing POTUS, were lawyers, activists and political hacks. And when the decision was being made two Tuesdays ago, Gates was against the “kinetiic action”.

Most honest and most competent.

 
 

Why does this grossly incompetent person still have a paying government job?

anotherindyfilmguy (Diary) Monday, March 28th at 1:54AM EDT (link)

Not the O, Hillary.
Why?

Razz Etc!
“Best Poker book written ever!!!” – Author’s unbiased opinion…

you have answered your own question

kyle8 (Diary) Monday, March 28th at 6:40AM EDT (link)

It’s government.

“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle

Ditto.

blooch Monday, March 28th at 10:18AM EDT (link)

“Close enough for government work” comes to mind.

“Lieutenant Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”

 
 
 

Frick and Frack

redpenny Monday, March 28th at 6:09AM EDT (link)

front and center doing their thing.Reminded me of the old Abbott and Costello”who’s on first” routine.Talk about an Ethopian cluster fxxk———the interview was one.

Don’t bother: the moderators tossed me out on my racist posterior already.

 

Lockerbie

jolinarofmalkshur Monday, March 28th at 7:49AM EDT (link)

I do not know if I understood correctly: Lybia and 9/11. The only connection I see is Lockerbie. It’s not Magrafy??? who bombed, it was Gadaffi. No Lybian did anything anywhere, without the aproval of Gaddafi. That is why when Magraffy was released and all the families of the dead in Lockerbie bombing were up in their arms in protest, Magraffy was received in Lybia like a hero: he took the blame for Gaddafi. One English relative of somebody killed said it clearly in an interview, that he did not object to Magraffy’s release because he (Magraffy) was only a fall guy; and I subscribe to this. Lockerbie was Gaddafi’s 9/11. What worries me sick (physically sick) is that the rebells (or some of the rebells) are Al Qaida. This is a catastrophe.
I ask myself what Nato/USA will do about Al-Qaida and Osama bin whatever: take them to court??? That despicable criminal Mladic is still alive and well in Serbia. Jesus!!!!

Ileana Eliza Paunica,
London UK

 

What s to be expected ?

grndpaal Monday, March 28th at 8:07AM EDT (link)

Grndpaal , along with all of you has watched this Marxist, Socialist agenda since…2008 ??

Whats to be expected ?? Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin ? A leopard his spots ? Jer 13:23 to con’t,”Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.”

 

We should call a duck, well "A Duck."

yoyo (Diary) Monday, March 28th at 9:02AM EDT (link)

We can count of this Administration’s “Overseas Contingency Operations”, including this latest “Kinetic Military Action” in Libya, to always incur further “Man-Caused Disasters” and thus result in a foreign policy “Agglomerated Kinetic Copulation.”

Look it up. I am pretty sure it is one of Murphy’s Laws.

….and don’t even get me started on domestic policy.

[h/t ceili_dancer who inspired this comment]

Nemo me impune lacesset
“No one will provoke me with impunity!”
=============================
Pukin’ Dogs – The Fighting 143
Sans Reproache
=============================
The ‘yoyo’ replaced my cigarettes January 22, 2006….

 

Meet The Press

gunslingr45 Monday, March 28th at 9:34AM EDT (link)

What we in the service use to call a circle jerk and or a cluster%#^&.

 

An astonishing side note.

skorrent1 (Diary) Monday, March 28th at 9:40AM EDT (link)

It’s one thing to have a Redstate poster imply that Tunisia is next to Libya, but when our SecState says outright that Libya would provide an “unstable border” for Tunisia, it’s time to get some new map makers in Foggy Bottom. Or better yet, just get rid of Foggy Bottom!

What the HE** happened to Algeria???

Hillary Just Did To Algeria What Egyptian Map-Makers Did to Israel.(nt)

Repair_Man_Jack (Diary) Monday, March 28th at 9:48AM EDT (link)

Mr. Obama is pretending that an economic “recovery” is underway when he knows damn well that the banking system is just blowing smoke up the shredded *** of what’s left of that economy – James Howard Kunstler

 
 

Slouching towards the caliphate

blooch Monday, March 28th at 10:31AM EDT (link)

She meant to do that. Those borders are colonial constructs, anyway, and Barry will no doubt tell us tonight that she’s doing a heckuva job over there.

“Lieutenant Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”