Senators John Kerry, Mitch McConnell and John McCain are calling for a no-fly zone over Libya. For some people stupid appears to be a vocation.
U.S. Senators Call for No-Flight Zone Over Libya by Joseph Berger NYT, March 6, 2011
For a while, my heroes Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham seemed to be in favor as well I can only hope they’ve come to their senses. Personally, I hate to be on the same side as the White House but at the moment I am and I think we ignore Secretary Gates at our peril – Clinton is saying the right things too. Gates has said these things recently:
· A no-fly zone would take a good deal more than one aircraft carrier.
· We are in the middle of two wars already and the economy is in the toilet.
· In both Afghanistan and Iraq, enemy forces contain many soldiers from Eastern Libya which is the leading contingent fighting Gaddafi at the moment.
· Imposing a no-fly zone is an act of war – we must attack manned equipment and facilities in order to make the mission save for our pilots.
· “In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,” Gates told Army Cadets.
It would be nice if people remembered history. We imposed a no-fly zone over Iraq in 1991. We were joined by the UK and France until the French withdrew in 1998. We remained there until the second Iraq Invasion where we remain today. Can you imagine the cost?
It is a fact that the cost of the no-fly zone and the increasing belligerence of the Iraq regime were part of the reason for the second invasion. It is also a fact that acts of war are very likely to lead to war.
Politicizing foreign policy is always a mistake. For Kerry, that’s his SOP starting with Vietnam but shame on John McCain. We can only hope that no leader is thinking that war might create jobs or that war time incumbent Presidents and their parties are hard to defeat.
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