The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Leaderless in Libya

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David Sanger writes in the New York Times that "the question in Washington has boiled down to this: Can Mr. Obama live with a stalemate?" That the answer to this question remains so unclear is a testament to Obama's failure to lead on the international stage in the way that we've come to expect from American presidents. The absence of such leadership is to blame for the rudderlessness of the NATO mission, which the British and French have begun to criticize:

The comments by William Hague, the British foreign secretary, and Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, also appeared to signal a rift within NATO only eight days after it assumed command from the United States for the air campaign over Libya...

While the pace of NATO air attacks appeared to pick up Monday in the battleground between Ajdabiya and the oil town of Brega in eastern Libya, rebel leaders have complained bitterly of a lull that seemed to coincide with the handoff of responsibility from the allied coalition to NATO. NATO pilots were also involved in two friendly-fire incidents that killed well over a dozen rebel fighters.

NATO has been criticized for a go-slow approach in the rebel-held western city of Misurata, which has fallen into desperate straits as a weeks-long siege by pro-Qaddafi forces has stretched thin its stocks of food, water and medical supplies. The city's port, a vital lifeline that was opened in the initial Western air attacks, was choked off by Colonel Qaddafi's forces in the days after NATO took over.

The port has since reopened, but the city remains under attack by tanks, artillery and snipers, and rebel leaders are complaining that NATO is failing there in its central objective of protecting civilians.

I know I'm becoming a broken record on this point, but the ability of NATO to protect civilians in Misratah -- isolated as it is from other rebel-held cities -- is likely to remain limited as long as Gaddafi remains in power. And the longer the fighting drags on, the greater the risk that radical jihadis, so far a relatively marginal force in the Libyan rebellion, will be strengthened as the credibility of more pro-Western rebels is undermined by NATO's ineffectiveness. And then there's the resonance that Gaddafi's survival would have on pro-democracy movements elsewhere in the region, the very real risk that a Gaddafi who survives as an international pariah might return to his old habit of sponsoring terror attacks.

Granted, all of those things -- the humanitarian hazard, the risk of Islamist insurgency, the resonance in the region, and the behavior of Gaddafi -- might have been as bad or worse if there had been no Western intervention at all. But the Obama administration's policy has been about as poorly executed as one can imagine.

Meanwhile, senators like John McCain, John Cornyn, and Marco Rubio, who want to clarify US policy and make Gaddafi's ouster an explicit military objective are being stymied by Harry Reid.

View all comments (4) | Leave a comment

Timothy L. Pennell| 4.13.11 @ 8:28AM

Leaderless in Libya? What about here, in America. Where was Golden Boy, when Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia were encased in ICE, from the worst Ice Storms on Record?
Where was HAMA'S Deliverer, when the GULF was looking on, helplessly, as their livelihoods were covered in oil?
Where was he when Honduras was removing a would be Dictator, from their Presidential Palace?
Where was when the Mullahs in Iran, were ordering the KILLING of protesters?
Where is he as Gasoline approaches $5.00 a gallon? The DEBT is collapsing us. Foreclosures at record levels. Food Stamp Participation at record levels. Bankruptcies, Bank Seizures, Homelessness, at record levels.
Where did the STIMULUS MONEY go?
Libya may be Leaderless, but WE, definitely are not.
WE have a Leader. Barack Hussein Obama. And he's leading us right over a cliff.

WL| 4.13.11 @ 9:24AM

As much as I would love to swoon and hail about what an incompetent idiot this president is...especially when it comes to national security or iraq or afghanistan or libya or guantanamo or etc or etc or etc.....

These type of columns are useless because the brainless fools who vote for these democrats don't care....

Dear conservative media:

Please get a clue...THEY ARE NOT anti-war...THEY ARE NOT mostly liberals....THEY ARE NOT true feminists....THEY ARE NOT even socialists......

While some obviously do fit into any one or more of those categories....

MOST DEMOCRAT VOTERS are USELESS FREELOADERS WHO WANT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING...and could care less about the "future" of our economy or National Security. They live a sad little life that wouldn't be much worse even if it does all collapse....

It's about high time we start trying to figure out new borders that cut out California, The liberal northeast, and those IGNORANT states in the upper midwest...(michigan, illinois, minnisooouuuuta, maybe even pennsylvania)

THE ONLY OUTCOME THAT CAN BE GOOD IS TO SAW OFF THE DEAD LIMBS and GET CRANKING AGAIN. HOWEVER, we CANNOT FORGET TO INCLUDE MASSIVE FENCING AND GUARD TOWERS ALONG THOSE NEW BORDERS....

BECAUSE THE LIBERAL FREELOADERS WILL WAIL, GNASH THEIR TEETH AND DO EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO GET WHERE WE ARE.....
Ever notice how good honest tea party types are never trying to move to where they are....but freeloaders ALWAYS show up where we are...

Michael L. Hauschild| 4.13.11 @ 10:35AM

The “collateral” tragedy of Libya is not the citizenry killing each other; Arab theocracies and dictatorships will continue to practice genocide in the name of Religion because of their religion, it is what they do. The real casualty is that an executive went to war without thought, without congressional approval, and without a cohesive plan.
This lack of foresight produced a dalliance totally hypocritical to the reason prompting the attack (saving civilians). The initiation of the action from our “commander in chief” followed by the abandonment of the “coalition” has destroyed any future with NATO (which we still finance). We have no credibility left on the world stage that democracy is an emergent hope to oppressed people; Obama has destroyed our Nation’s capability to spread freedom throughout the world.
The first Bush threw the Marsh Arabs and Kurds into the maw of the power vacuum he created, Clinton turned the area into a distraction for his dalliances. Only the second Bush placed America on the World Stage in a favorable light, tragically this noble effort was wasted as he also laid the groundwork for the domestic spending that has now ruined our country.
Obama has made democracy the bastard child of the progressive, we are the conscientious objector of nations, our democracy indistinguishable from socialism or dictatorship. We have nothing left to be proud of; our leaders are rudderless, seeking re-election more than seeking the return to our Shining place on the hill. Our standing in the world is that of a tenant behind in his rent, our once proud Nation is a place where you achieve solvency by trading for your vote or crossing our porous borders.