The Tripoli Trap

Libyans are crying for the The Great Satan to come and save them, and the neocons who've never so much as heard a shot fired in anger are beating the war drums. 



My answer? Va Fangoul!

Remember the lies Chalabi and other Saddam opponents told us? People would throw flowers at our feet and welcome us with kisses, the Iraqi people just wanted to be free, Saddam was building nuclear weapons…

He and other succeeded in goading us to action, at a high cost in lives and treasure. Now the oil is flowing, and contracts go to China, who did nothing to topple the old regime. In Afghanistan, our troops are making the country safe for Chinese and Russian mining companies, while our “friends” the Pakistanis provide safe haven for their friends the Taliban.

We saved the Kosovar and Bosnian Muslims from slaughter and are rewarded by a Balkan Muslim gunning down American Airmen at Frankfurt Main.

We saved Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from Hussein, Afghanistan from the Taliban, and our military is stationed in the Gulf at the request of the poobahs to protect them from Iran.  All we get is hatred in return.

If we were so stupid as to go in to Libya, we would end up being further castigated by the purple-faced Muslim Street and their fellow travelers in the international left.

Libyans are already trying to lure us in…

Not because they love America or admire our ideals; but because they need our firepower to topple Khaddafi. Once that is accomplished, welcoming smiles will turn to fleck-spittle hatred and we’ll be accused of war crimes. If we leave too early we will be abandoning the Libyan people. If we stay too long, we’re building an empire. Every bomb we drop will end up killing “civilians,” most likely in one of those ubiquitous wedding parties. Every troop killed by a wild-eyed Libyan fanatic we’re trying to help will be called an unfortunate aberration…

We’ve seen this movie before, and there’s no good ending. Here’s how it begins…

“A large French flag hangs on the front of the courthouse used as the revolutionary council's headquarters after Paris recognised the rebel leadership […]

“But Libyans are also increasingly vocal in their criticism of Washington in particular for what is seen as a failure to back up rhetoric against the regime. (Guardian – Libyan Rebels)

Awww… See? They love us, but now they’re becoming disappointed in their hero Uncle Sam… BS!

But we’d better rush in there, or these feckless, unstable people will fall into the arms of the radical Islamists!

“However, Gheriani said that if the west failed to offer practical help to the revolutionaries to free themselves from Gaddafi's rule it risked frustrated Libyans turning to religious extremists.

If the west takes too long – where people say it's too little, too late – then people become a target for extremists who say the west doesn't care about them," he said.

"Most people in this country are moderates and extremists have not been able to penetrate them. But if they get to the point of disillusionment with the west there will be no going back."

Screw ‘em! We’ve heard all that before and it’s all BS. 
They’re all extremists and they all hate us! We’ve already proven that using our military power to help them won’t change that.

We’ve witnessed how they really feel about us...
Dancing in the streets at the news of 9/11, nothing but a constant stream of vituperation spewed upon the civilized west, ignorant stinking hordes lapping up every outrageous lie and conspiracy theory the demagogic mullahs tell them…

No, this is not fertile ground for Western civilization to take root. This is not a bridge to new friendships. It’s just another venue for the bug-eyed bastards of the Religion of Pieces to stage their theater of the grotesque. Well, this is one opera the US should skip. Let someone else provide the kettle drums and the snares.

We’ve allowed these inhabitants of the armpit of the world to send us on too many fool’s errands
The Muslim dingbats have again set their house ablaze, and again they call the US Fire Department. And again, once the fire is out, they will criticize us for putting axes through the doors and soaking the walls and the furniture. It’s time for the fire department to stand back and let the house burn down. Maybe that will teach these crazy morons to stop playing with matches.

For a more reasoned and informed analysis, read Intelligence analyst Paul Pillar's article, Not So Limited Liability in Libya.

Time to Throw the Neocons Overboard

Neocons are Progressive community organizers on a global scale. It’s time to pitch then overboard if we want to advance the conservative movement

Operation New Dawn, its name suggesting a skin cream or dishwashing liquid, now begins. (What ever happened to the practice of using terms like Torch or Overlord or Dragon to describe military campaigns?) (Andrew Bacevich - Obama Wants Us to Forget Iraq Lessons)

Professor Andrew Bacevich, who lost a son in the Iraq war, has consistently provided readers a clear-eyed view of American foreign policy. In his latest article, he shows how good intentions can reap unintended (and undesirable) outcomes.

Every time we thought we had “solved” something in the Middle East, another problem cropped up. Taking out Mossadegh let the Shah of Iran back in, angering the Islamists, who then took power 20 years later. Taking out Saddam destroyed the firewall protecting the Middle East from the Iranians. Wouldn’t it have been better to let Saddam take Kuwait?

"But he put his own citizens through giant shredders!"  The neocons shout.

"But women had relative freedom in Iraq and he brutally squashed all that Sharia nonsense," retort the realists.

See? We put ourselves in the position of weighing the pros and cons of remaking the lives of others. We have no business doing that, most especially when the people don’t want our help.

You can’t help those who don’t want your help
“Nation building” only works when the nation you are building wants to be built, like the European nations after World War II, Japan, and later South Korea. We took a relatively light touch in Central America during the Reagan 80’s, and the situation there is materially better because of our efforts.

Rock-ribbed conservative David Freddoso goes even further than the more liberal Bacevich, declaring that nation building in Iraq was not worth it. I can’t go that far.

We did not achieve “nothing.” No matter how ill-conceived the invasion may have been, troops on the ground made the best of a very bad situation. We took out a dictator, killed a lot of bad guys, and at least gave Iraqis a chance to chart a new course. That in itself is quite an achievement, more so for the US Military (especially the US Army) than for our government or any politician.

I do agree with Freddoso on this...

The question we need to ask is whether we really want to do something like that again. It’s a question that Republican candidates for Congress should be asking themselves right now

As someone who has been there as a bit player in a supporting role, my answer is no, we should not do something like this again.  It's time to pitch the neocons overboard.  Hard.  On their heads.

Neocons, like progressives, have Utopian dreams of solving problems, ignoring the stubborn fact that in this vale of tears, nothing is ever “solved.”

Global War on American Prosperity

Remake the Middle East?  We can't even remake Detroit

Our major combat forces are out of Iraq, and we're ramping up in Afghanistan, hoping to make enough gains so we can disentagle ourselves from there as well.

James Antle asks if conservative are ready to say "To hell with the hawks."

However reluctant conservatives may be to question retroactively the justice of our Bush-era wars, many are beginning to wonder if our prolonged occupations and nation-building exercises are worth American blood and treasure.  (AmCon- Antle)

I agree.  We should continue to reserve the right to reach out and smack someone, but the endless wars will end up breaking us.

Beware People Beating War Drums Who Have Never Been to War

I long ago grew tired of the tinny war cries of the William Kristols and the Frank Gaffneys.  If they want to invade Iran (a terrible idea), they can go raise their own damned army and do it themselves.  That country has the most pro-American populace in the Middle East outside of Israel.  Killing them and breaking their stuff is a sure way to blow it.

“Nation-building is the most prominent — and most important — part of the neocon doctrine,” wrote Jed Babbin in the American Spectator. “And the decision to pursue it is the principal reason that we are losing in Afghanistan, Iraq is falling apart, and the real enemy — the terror-sponsoring nations — have grown stronger.”

Neocons are Neo-Wilsonian Progressives

Antle goes on to identify three foreign policy strains of American conservatism, "... Jeffersonians, the Wilsonians, and the Jacksonians."  Go read the whole article and you will see why invasions and nation-building are very un-conservative activities.

Less is More

Respected journalist and scholar Robert D. Kaplan points to the future of American Military intervention in his 2007 article, Unheralded Military Successes.  He specifically highlights our low-key successes in Colombia and The Phillipines.

... the missions in Colombia and the Philippines showcase low-cost, low-risk and tediously unspectacular counterinsurgency options. And these places are not alone. Other U.S. military deployments I have observed recently -- in Algeria, Mali, Niger, Kenya, Georgia and Nepal -- are variations in a minor key. What stands out about all of these missions is their small scale and implicit modesty. We are not in combat in any of these countries -- but, rather, training local militaries that are or might be.

In all these countries, our military aid is combined with civilian development assistance. This is the global war on terrorism as preventive rather than as proscriptive. It doesn't cost much. You could spread Green Beret teams across Africa for the price of one F-22 jet. If there is another model out there that will keep the U.S. military engaged without overextending it, and will help move along inter-agency cooperation, I have not seen it.

I believe what he says because I've seen it myself in Colombia as well as other Central and South American countries. With a little military assistance, we chased communism from Central America in the 1980's, and Kaplan relates how we trained Eastern Europeans in the 1990's, building friendships that paid dividends after 9/11.

What's the common theme in all of this?
Small footprint, inexpensive, culturally-sensitive operations that help people who are willing to help themselves.  We conservatives bristle at progressives who want to remake America, so why should we support such budget busting efforts in other countries?