What are you on about? The western world is intervening. The US is firing cruise missiles the Europeans are sending in aircraft. What part of that is allowing Gadhafi to use his military on his own people unopposed? Maybe a little or a lot late though.
It looks to me like the job is going to get done.
That was my point. What is going on here? Have I entered some Twilight Zone world were I type one thing and it comes out some other thing on other peoples' computer screens?
![[tinfoil]](http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/Smileys/default/hat-tin-foil-smiley.gif "Tinfoil Hat Smiley")
We ARE doing it, as you say --AND WE
ARE LATE!!!!!
Absofrickinglutely. I don't see the role of the USA as having to deal with every murderous despot in the world. This is a matter for the Libyan people to work out. If the Europeans wish to assist, more power to them.
Why do you feel we should intervene in this situation as opposed to others around the world? There is no shortage of murderous despots.
Oh great, here comes the
"we can't save everones' ass and be the WORLD POLICE so we should sit on our hands and let everyones' ass be fried" argument.
Get this straight.
I am not making the argument we SHOULD or COULD be the "world police." Yes there are thugs aplenty out there. But like it or not we have interests in the Arab part of the world, and we
CAN do this. When I say we should "do something" why is it every one has to reply by telling me we can't do things I did not say we could or should do in the first place??
When we allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good, let's not forget the paralysis that results and allows the evil to continue. We sure don't have a perfect world, but Libya is a part of the world where there is oil, and it is in that part of the world were things have been ....if no one's noticed.... getting a tad dicey as of late.
If and when we succeed in Libya, there will still be other despots in the world. Whether you like it or not, we live in a world which is governed by, as pundit Rush Limbaugh aptly states,
"the aggressive use of force." There IS going to be a
"top dog."Who do we want it to be?
Right now China is building up its military and will become a true force in the western Pacific region in 15 or 20 years. Is it OK if they become top dog? They like to drive tanks over college students who protest to much. They also don't like religious people very much, I don't know if people here have been keeping up on that or not.
While they are developing new antiship missiles, a stealth fighter which our experst thought was a decade away, but is flying in test form now, the United States is busy canceling the F-22 program, leaving the Air Force with half the new generation stealth fighters it needs, and the procurement program for the F-35 is mucked up beyond recognition, which actually is not all that horrible as it is not as effective as the F-22.
Meanwhile our Air Superiority fighter, the F-15s, are 1980s vintage and old in the teeth, and our navy is getting smaller as we speak. Even our newer Navy fighter, the Super Hornet, is not as great as it probably needs to be and its survivability in a high threat environment is questionable.
So actually, the people here who wanna sit out everything may soon get their wish. But by default; we may lose a large part of our ability to project power.
So we'll wind up like we were after WW1...a third rate power with our soldiers practicing with sticks against trucks with placards saying "tank" on them because there will be too few tanks to be effective. We'll turn into an isolationist country one more time in our history.....
and it no doubt won't be long before we have the Chinese and /or Russian version of an Adolph Hitler to deal with.
By which time I suspect I will have left this mortal coil, as I am talking about the future here, and by that I don't mean just tomorrow morning.
Which is fine by me, you know.
--- It's all yours....
