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Post by King of the Wastes on Mar 20, 2011 18:41:01 GMT -5
As I am sure you are all aware a united coalition of countries is now attacking and enforcing a no fly zone over Libya. The US is helping with air superiority and sending in missiles to hot targets, but won't be sending in any ground troops. Gaddafi's compound has been hit by 2 missiles, but he is not being targeted personally. Any thoughts on this and what this means for the region?
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poohan
Dead Wastelander
Posts: 41
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Post by poohan on Mar 21, 2011 0:53:45 GMT -5
they seem to be doing exactly what i said should be done so im highly interested to see how it turns out.
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Post by imperator03 on Mar 21, 2011 13:10:09 GMT -5
I just have to wonder how this in any was affects the national security of the United States. Michael Wallace asked a good question to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Sunday. He basically asked why we're intervening in Libya with military force when places like Bahrain are killing civvies too. Admiral Mullen, unsurprisingly, gave a political answer; basically we're not intervening there because the leaders in Bahrain are supposedly listening to us. I think the reality to be a bit different. Libya is a much more interesting story and gets more ink than Bahrain or Yemen. Plus if we did anything in Yemen, any chance to get at Awlaki. So the good Admiral gave a pat answer that really didn't answer the question. Hell, I even agree with the President (never thought I'd say that) that the US should take a backseat on this. Let the Europeans deal, it's in their backyard. Yeah, yeah they couldn't deal in the former Yugoslavia two decades ago, but they have to stop sucking the teat sometime.
I'd be very surprised if we don't send ground troops. We didn't in Kosovo, but AFAIK that's the only time we didn't. Ground troops are, after all, the only ones who can take and hold ground. General Douhet be damned, air power can't change that little fact. It only worked with the Serbian conflict because the KLA used the US Air Force as a virtual arm of their military. It remains to be seen if the rebels can do that here. That still doesn't change the fact, however, that this has nothing to do with the national defense of the United States and that we're still meddling around the world. This will just give us "moral superiority" to intervene where we're not wanted and cause other discontented groups like al qaeda to scapegoat us.
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Post by King of the Wastes on Mar 28, 2011 15:06:42 GMT -5
The US has handed it to the Canadians, the Rebels are using the airstrikes to push back and take back land.
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Post by vault72 on Mar 28, 2011 21:26:09 GMT -5
I commented about that the other day on comms with KOW and Koko, I fail to see why we needed to intervene besides so many wanting him removed from power when for quite awhile now genocide is being done in the Congo yet no U.N. or U.S. presence is there. It has gone from a no fly zone to taking out opposition towards the rebel's advance, it would appear that the no fly zone was just an excuse to try and remove the current government but time will tell if a new government is better or worse then the current one, hell we may just end up creating another enemy we will have to deal with later.
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Post by imperator03 on Mar 29, 2011 14:41:56 GMT -5
I commented about that the other day on comms with KOW and Koko, I fail to see why we needed to intervene besides so many wanting him removed from power when for quite awhile now genocide is being done in the Congo yet no U.N. or U.S. presence is there. It has gone from a no fly zone to taking out opposition towards the rebel's advance, it would appear that the no fly zone was just an excuse to try and remove the current government but time will tell if a new government is better or worse then the current one, hell we may just end up creating another enemy we will have to deal with later. That's why I support a total pullback of US forces from around the world. People don't like it when we meddle, we should let them solve their problems on their own. It'll be good for them, it builds character. Other than some SF and intelligence assets in Waziristan, we should bring all of our boys and girls back home and, I don't know, use them against the Mexican drug cartels or something. It's funny how we're slammed internationally and when those idiots get a wild hair up their butts, they call on us to "fix" the problem. Screw it, let them burn.
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