Libya: Quick victory or long mess?

Drudge Report currently has quotes from both Presidents Bush and Obama posted from March 19th 2003, and March 19th 2011. The two are almost identical.

Bush: "American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger..."

Obama: "Today we are part of a broad coalition. We are answering the calls of a threatened people. And we are acting in the interests of the United States and the world..."

There are too many things wrong with this whole picture. First of all, why are the liberals all of a sudden such warhawks? I always find it interesting when Presidents launch military action when they themselves are under fire. Remember when Slick Willy launched Operation Desert Fox the friday evening right before he got impeached? After a month of wishy-washy non-committal soundbites about Libya and before that Egypt, Obama decides to embark on half-hearted military action. Obama has already said that at no point will any infantry or land troops be deployed there. I am not arguing that they should, but how will opposing forces take us seriously if we already are setting limits on our actions?

Another thing wrong with this whole ordeal is our role in general. Why are we letting the UK and France lead the way? Senator Lindsey Graham, a general softball player usually, just pointed out on Fox News: Sunday, that America has always enjoyed being the leader of the free world and should continue enjoying that role. The RINO is right.

But at the end of the day, we simply shouldn't be doing anything about this. As striking as the similarity of quotes from the Presidents is, one can't compare different situations across the board. Iraq was a threat to The United States. Libya is not. When Iraq kicked off we had a president committed to victory. Now we do not. When Iraq kicked off we were involved in only one other war in the middle-east. Now we are already involved in two.

It looks as if we're in this now though. Now that we're in it, we need to be in it to win. Either we get rid of Ghadafi, or pack up and come home.

At least the sailors got to have some fun and see something cool instead of sitting around playing poker and reading Penthouse all day.

While all this stuff goes down in the middle east, let's not forget our allies in Israel

According to the Jerusalem Post, (click here for the story) which ran the story this morning, Israel is one of the least popular countries in the world. The J-Post was quick to inform the reader that no Israelis were actually polled in the study which was done by the BBC.

It should be no surprise that the poll's finding were such as they were. While no Israelis were polled, people from Egypt were. The US and the UK were the two countries that had become the most negative towards Israel in contrast to ten years ago.

It seems funny that as the liberals (and many conservatives) are raving about how the people in the middle east have been "peacefully" protesting, (not exactly a true statement) and that finally the people of the Middle East are standing up to these atrocious leaders, that all the liberals have done is speak out against Israel for defending itself against these hostile regimes since it's creation. Perhaps the Israel haters should thank Israel for being our only real ally in the region.

Does anybody else feel like lately it's been amateur hour?

The idea that Obama's administration has no clue, or rather, has no care about what's been going on in the Middle East has been circulating for some time now. In particular the accusation has been all over the blogosphere today. The "Pantano for Congress" facebook page posted an article from the NY Daily News claiming this, (click here for the story)and I can't say as I disagree. Pictures of the President golfing while places all over that region of the world are in turmoil hardly seem professional.

For the record, I don't consider myself educated enough to have a strong stance on everything that has been going on of late over there. I'm no Gaddafi fan, but I'm also no expert in foreign relations. The same could be said for Egypt. Yet the rest of the world, and Americans as well for that matter, need to sign, some reassurance, that the current administration has the confidence and the resolve to take some sort of stand as all this happens.

Sometimes no decision is worse than bad decision. I am not in favor in any type of US intervention in Libya. However, as the newest reports from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal come out, it looks that our president is dodging the issues. In Libya no revolution looks to be taking place. It looks to be Civil War. For something that is that long and drawn out, the world needs to know where we as a country stand. To do otherwise looks like we simply don't know what to do or say. Frankly, it looks like amateur hour.