{"id":1579,"date":"2011-06-08T09:31:47","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T07:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.military-history.us\/?p=1579"},"modified":"2012-06-29T15:42:11","modified_gmt":"2012-06-29T13:42:11","slug":"tilting-at-windmills-what-the-hell-is-obama-nato-and-the-west-doing-in-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/2011\/06\/tilting-at-windmills-what-the-hell-is-obama-nato-and-the-west-doing-in-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"Tilting at Windmills: What the Hell is Obama, NATO, and the West Doing in Libya?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been pondering this one for a while now. \u00c2\u00a0What exactly, is the west trying to accomplish in Libya? \u00c2\u00a0I have posted on this before here<\/a> and here<\/a>, and I am still puzzled as to what we are trying to accomplish in Libya, protect so-called innocent civilians or topple Qaddafi’s regime? The stated goal of the administration is to protect civilians in line with the UN Security Council resolution # 1973<\/a>, but the way in which the air campaign is being waged certainly makes it seem as if toppling Qaddafi is the goal of the bombing. \u00c2\u00a0Their were intense air attacks yesterday<\/a>, and one of his son’s was killed in an air strike<\/a> on a compound in Tripoli. \u00c2\u00a0Yet Obama, NATO, and the west continually<\/a> state they are not trying <\/a>to kill the Libyan leadership<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0The pattern of bombing seems to suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tilting at Windmills<\/p><\/div>\n

Sorry, I have to call bullshit on this one. \u00c2\u00a0Of course they are trying to kill Qaddafi, they would be stupid if they were not. \u00c2\u00a0Conventional military theory holds that killing the leadership is not only a good idea, but a great one. \u00c2\u00a0Then again, apparently it is not a conventional campaign being waged. \u00c2\u00a0This is a war of R2P, not a war of conquest. \u00c2\u00a0The west is trying to protect civilians and doing it in the worst way possible. \u00c2\u00a0If they really wanted to protect civilians we would invade the country, topple the government, and engage in Iraq style nation building. \u00c2\u00a0The problem is the US cannot do it and the Euro countries are incapable of doing it. \u00c2\u00a0They are not even capable of waging an air campaign without significant US logistical and C2 support as has been shown in the campaign thus far.<\/p>\n

So we are \u00c2\u00a0left with a war that is not a war and a campaign with no victory criteria. \u00c2\u00a0There is not even a stated goal other than the very nebulous R2P. \u00c2\u00a0There was a more concrete goal in Somalia in the early ’90s and that was a waste of time and resources. \u00c2\u00a0I guess we just have to wait and see what happens, unless Congress actually does de-fund US operations, which is a distinct possibility. \u00c2\u00a0The West looks increasingly like it suffers from Don Qixote Syndrome<\/a> in pursuing a path with no hope of success given the level of effort they are willing to expend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been pondering this one for a while now. \u00c2\u00a0What exactly, is the west trying to accomplish in Libya? \u00c2\u00a0I have posted on this before here and here, and I am still puzzled as to what we are trying… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,50,60,81,460],"tags":[107,83,205,265,264,1009],"class_list":["post-1579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campaigns-operations","category-war-origination","category-contemporary-wars","category-political-history","category-military-strategy","tag-commentary","tag-geopolitics","tag-libya","tag-libyan-intervention","tag-libyan-war","tag-war-origination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}