“Right now, the best case is simply to sit back and root for injuries between the warring parties in Libya — not intervening for either side.” Using the same rationale George W. Bush used to go into Iraq, Barack Obama has now gone into Libya. It seems that the world is upside down. Suddenly Republicans are concerned about going into a Middle Eastern country and | Read More »
Dan Nexon has pretty effectively summed up the “Obama Doctrine” as the “Humanitarian-intervention-against-militarily-weak-fossil-fuel-producing-countries-in-strategically-important-regions-that-are-also-located-near-many-large-NATO-military-bases-and-are-run-by-dictators-who-kind-of-piss-us-off-and-have-no-powerful-allies Doctrine.” That seems to sum it up pretty well. The only thing I’d add is that it also includes both parts of Obama’s key campaign refrains, Hope and Change. As in, we’re going to hope that change comes to Libya in the form of a new, non-Qaddafi government; we’re going to hope | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Matt Lewis to discuss Obama’s Libya speech, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and more. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show. Related Links: | Read More »
I believe that this qualifies as a “Kinsley gaffe:” which is to say, a politician accidentally telling the truth. Background: this was from a press conference where the President was trying to explain why his foreign policy was such an improvement over georgewbushgeorgewbushgeorgewbush’s, despite the fact that it lacks a coherent conceptual framework, an overall philosophy, a clear set of objectives, and any sort of | Read More »
You might have heard that President Obama (finally) gave a speech about the shelling of Libya he ordered well over a week ago. Or, you might not have; he’s been trying pretty hard to keep our involvement in it out of the public eye, despite the US having the leading role in every phase of this “kinetic military action” except (1) decision-making, and (2) actually | Read More »
UPDATE: The Associated Press, of all organizations, is fact checking Barack Obama and he isn’t exactly coming up smelling like roses. It’ time to go back to Pinocchiobama. By the way, what’s the difference between Pinocchio and Obama? Pinocchio had no strings attached. ———————- Now let me be clear?—?I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man | Read More »
Exactly a week ago, Kevin Baron of Stars and Stripes wrote the following about Libya and the Obama campaign administration’s “plan” there: The U.S.-led coalition is slowing its bombing campaign over Libya and pushing the boundaries of a no-fly zone westward toward Tripoli, but it will not provide close air support for opposition rebels, its commander said. There is no sign, however, that a handoff | Read More »
“Humanitarian imperialism” is the phrase Mickey’s come up with to describe Whatever The Heck It Is We’re Doing These Days In Eurasia, and it’s a good one. It’s also one that implies a constant, low-level state of war that goes a good deal beyond the one that we’re in now; and I should make a distinction here between the Bush and the (unstated) Obama Doctrines. | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Libya, Washington’s boom town status and a key court decision against the Fed. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy | Read More »
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 | Read More »
As we’ve noted over the past weeks, we know precious little about the alleged “rebels” on whose behalf we’ve intervened in Libya. Now a little more information is available: In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited “around 25″ men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some | Read More »
In some ways, John Yoo’s argument (“Antiwar Senator, War-Powers President“) is almost… superfluous. The basic point is straightforward enough: President Obama, just like every other President since 1973, has come to the conclusion that the War Powers Act is in fact an unconstitutional and onerous restriction on the executive branch’s constitutionally mandated oversight of military affairs. This conclusion follows the usual evolutionary arc: as Yoo | Read More »
Obama is committed to partnering with other countries rather than going it alone as did his predecessor George W. Bush, which both broadens and complicates the decision-making process. – Inner Party Truth-Organ, Reuters. (HT:New York Times) Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic read this purgative and quickly needed a lavatory in which to up-chuck. His nausea is understandable. His restraint in castigating such rampant dishonesty in | Read More »
The Libyan operation would have nearly a comic opera quality were it not for the fact that people are needlessly getting killed because of the fecklessness of the Obama Administration. As we pointed out yesterday, our motive for going into Libya has absolutely nothing to do with establishing a less repressive regime, the rebels are happily engaged in the slaughter of their enemies and carrying | Read More »
Promoted from diaries. – Moe Lane Full disclosure. I did not support Richard Nugent during the primary of 2010. I spoke out against him and supported Jason Sager. However he won. The voters spoke. Half-way between the primary and general election, we got to meet face-to-face and we buried the hachet like two adult men (or at least I did). I knew he was going | Read More »
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