Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jedi Wanderer on March 28, 2011 at 3:15pm

Nope!

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Permalink Reply by David Anam on March 28, 2011 at 3:15pm

I'm going to have to go with what my gut tells me. And my gut says "maybe."

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Permalink Reply by Park Bierbower on March 28, 2011 at 3:21pm

You're wrong! get ready for some action... In my pants

 

 

 

Damn, did you edit it now?

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Permalink Reply by David Anam on March 28, 2011 at 3:25pm

Yeah, I decided that keeping it short would make it more funny. I was hoping no one would notice...

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Permalink Reply by Jedi Wanderer on March 28, 2011 at 3:24pm

Okay! Fine! Jeez! I say it is a good thing. The argument has been going around that what goes on in Libya isn't in our national interest. That's unbelievably shortsighted. And while we spend too much as a nation on defense, we do so mostly being prepared for a kind of war, a full-on assault, that is very unlikely and we are not well-organized or well-equipped to deal with the kinds of military interventions which are becoming increasingly more likely and more vital to our self-interest. You know, I did a small amount of training with special forces back in my paratrooping days, and I have often wondered what these guys ever actually get to do, since we are either fighting these large wars or now apparently we stand back and fire missiles at far-away targets. These guys are exactly the sort of people I would like to see in places all over the world, giving support to all of these revolts. But it's dangerous work. It's very messy... sort of like the action in your pants.

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Permalink Reply by TK on March 28, 2011 at 7:32pm

I think it's funny that we are at war with Al Qaeda, but are supporting the rebels, which have Al Qaeda ties.  We sure do have some strange bedfellows over there in the Middle East.  I still think that we need to get off of oil, so we can stay out of the cluster fudge that the Middle East is.  I also would like to note that we do not give a fudge about any civilians over there.  If we did, we'd be intervening in the other countries like Yemen where they are killing protesters too.  We only intervene when it's in our economic interest, which is quite appalling. 

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Permalink Reply by mthoreau on March 30, 2011 at 1:28pm

I'm ok with it as long as there are no boots on the ground occupation forces sent in. As far as I can tell, we are siding with the rebels to influence the military outcome of the conflict but we aren't influencing the political outcome. This is the kind of thing the U.N. was created for. We can't fight every single dictator (or at least not at once), but by and large, this is one of the very few things that I feel happy about our military being used for.

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Permalink Reply by TK on March 30, 2011 at 6:51pm

The air strikes are only going to go so far.  From what I understand, the rebels are neither organized enough, nor armed well enough to beat Gadaffi's army and mercenaries.  Do we arm the rebels?  I think if we do, we could end up with another Afghanistan in 10 years.

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Permalink Reply by Park Bierbower on March 30, 2011 at 8:18pm

Agreed.  If the uprising isn't popular enough to be accomplished en mass by the people (it would have to be after his forces have been neutralized...) then we end up training a political faction and putting that into power.  While the happenings of this are distinctly different from Afghanistan in many ways, the general concept is similar enough to make me feel uneasy... But I am an advocate of international action in a situation like this... If only Darfur or Burma had this value to the "west."

 

[edited for grammar]

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Permalink Reply by TK on March 30, 2011 at 8:33pm

Freedom that isn't earned is freedom easily lost.  From what I understand, this was a popular uprising, but getting shot at becomes unpopular real quick, especially when you don't have any guns to shoot back with.  I sympathize with the rebels and sincerely hope they can get it together and can beat Gadaffi and his hired thugs.  That being said, rushing into a city with no plan and no tactics isn't going to win you a war.  Yes it may be emotionally appeasing at the time, but it's going to suck when your squad gets wiped out because you didn't think before you acted.  Without boots on the ground, this is going to be a huge back and forth for a long time, and the rebels have a real chance of losing if they keep things up the way they are now.  They need to organize in a city they control, recruit, train, and then go on the offensive.  Without planning and training, they are going to lose to the better trained and equipped Gadaffi loyalists.  Then again, there is always the insurgency method. 

 

I heard on the news that a lot of the Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq came from Eastern Libya.  I just think that this whole mess is a bunch of these guys suck, well they're not that bad, well now they suck, well we reconsidered and they are not so bad, wait we were wrong they really do suck, wait again they are ok now.  I just find the whole back and forth thing on our policy in the region disconcerting. 

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