Friday, August 19, 2011

Libya: Illegal War, But It Works

Ace, who doesn't address the "War Powers/Congressional Mandate" issue, is thinking clearly about Libya.  By that I mean that US policy should look a lot more like the Libya "kinetic action" than the Iraq/Afghanistan model.

Two kudos for Obama in one day!

...Tripoli's surrounded, and a siege may bring the city down.

If so, this is a vindication of something I've been saying for months. The Bush model of war -- go in heavy, attempt to win the war on the backs of American (and allied) soldiers, attempt to establish a monopoly on the use of violence, and then continue that monopoly on the use of violence by acting as the nation's law enforcement/army for five, six, ten years -- doesn't work, or at least does not work at costs the American public is willing to pay.

Ace does not *heart* Colin Powell, by the way.

...We used to arm and train rebels within those countries (they've all got them), fund them, provide intelligence, spread some bribe money around, and, when necessary, bring in the sort of Word of God that our air and naval forces issue from the air or sea.

Obviously, facts and circumstances matter.  Not all threats to the US will succumb to the Libya Model, just as not all threats to the US require the WWII model.

But the Ace/Libya model does require a helluvalot more CIA capability than we have currently.

2 comments:

steveegg said...

It is closer to the Afghan (Nov-Dec 2001) model than you and Ace appreciate. Much of what we did then was supply air supremacy to the Northern Alliance, like what we're doing for the Lybian rebels (or indeed the Balkans in the 1990s).

The question becomes what happens after our "allies" march triumphantly into the capital. In the Balkans, the NATO bases were close enough that Slobodan Milosevic could be slapped down if he and his Serb buddies got uppity again (and indeed, it took a few slaps and a lot more time than most people acknowledge). In Afghanistan, there were no allied bases close enough to allow us to repeat that.

Also, in the Balkans, unlike both Afghanistana nd Libya, the bad guys weren't pushed entirely out, so it was a lot easier to convince the successors to Milosevic to give up open conflict. The bad news is there is still a need for both the NATO-based Kosovo Force (yes, US troops are stil there) and the European Union-based EUFOR Althea in Bosnia.

Dad29 said...

You know me. I'll be direct:

Why there is still a need for both the NATO-based Kosovo Force

This is precisely what Ace and I object to.

The US is not the cop-shop. I don't give a rat's ass what Euro-NATO does, but WE are not a cop shop.

F'n serbs and croats have been killing each other for 1500 years, Muzzies just joined in around 1000 years ago.

Their damn problem, NOT OURS.

Was I too direct?