When asked by Jake Tapper on ABC’s This Week about how Obama has done regarding Libya, George Will said this:
President Obama has managed the situation about as well as any American President could given the nature of modern international diplomacy.
First, we insist that the American President must say something. So he says Gaddafi must go. [Later – unable to put down the shovel – the President insisted that we are “tightening the noose” on Gaddafi.]
Next, the World Court via the UN recommends prosecution for Gaddafi which means that if he leaves Libya he will be arrested and prosecuted.
Then there is an arms embargo of unclear intent which probably includes the people fighting Gaddafi.
As the Gaddafi we made desperate begins to win the fight, people say well, the President having said Gaddafi must go, if he doesn’t go, then he has defeated America which would be a situation we cannot tolerate.
This is how interventions come about.
You can see Wills remarks here.
We cannot control the silliness of Europeans, the Feudalism of Arabs and Muslims, the corruption of the UN’s super majority of dictator states, the paranoia of the Russians or isolationism of China. But why do we repeatedly fail to control our own actions?
· We should not politicize foreign policy.
· We should not involve ourselves in the domestic politics of foreign nations. [Libya is not Rwanda.]
What in the hell ever happened to speak softly and carry a big stick? Are we now completely unable to learn from history?
I find it mildly ironic that Teddy Roosevelt attributed his trade mark phrase to a “West African proverb” given that West Africa abuts the western border of Libya.
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