Ah, the convenience of “just words” – pretty speeches designed to soothe the savage citizenry, and give us all new definitions by which to gauge “victory” and political approval in the 21st Century. INRE wars and enemies, the global War on Terror is obsolete, and has been replaced with “Overseas Contingencies”. And now, our POTUS has assured us that the US “exit strategy” for Libya “…will be executed this week” when command of the no fly coalition forces is turned over to NATO. This new definition tag teams Curt’s post yesterday about using language to disguise “failure” for Libya.
But some aren’t fooled by this play on words, and Jake Tapper calls out the POTUS on his convenient redefining of the absurd new age war concept, “exit strategy”.
In an interview with Univision Tuesday, President Obama re-defined the term “exit strategy,” and said our exit strategy in Libya would begin this week.
“The exit strategy will be executed this week,” President Obama said, “in the sense that we will be pulling back from our much more active efforts to shape the environment. We will still be in a support role. We will be supplying jamming, intelligence and other assets unique to us.”
Planes in the air? Ships in the Mediterranean? Intelligence being provided? Doesn’t sound like an exit strategy at all.
What it does recall is Lewis Carroll.
“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
This, of course, means that… technically, and according to Obama’s O’vocabulary… we don’t need no stinkin’ “exit strategy” from Afghanistan at all. If the very definition of “exit strategy” is NATO control, the US has officially “exited” Afghanistan in July of 2006, when NATO assumed full authority over the operations. Coincidently, months before the security and operations meltdown.
How convenient.
Obama has probably been too busy with other events – from golf and b-ball predictions to Brazilian travels and avoiding writing speeches for non press conferences to address the nation about committing US forces to Libya – to recall his lack of consistency when he was demanding an “exit strategy” when pondering his own surge in Afghanistan.
Makes you wonder…. how could it be a “surge” when the US had already “exited” that war, according to his description?
The definition of NATO command as the official “exit” also becomes more humorous when, during the Sept 26, 2008 Presidential debates, Obama said about Iraq:
Now six years ago, I stood up and opposed this war at a time when it was politically risky to do so because I said that not only did we not know how much it was going to cost, what our exit strategy might be, how it would affect our relationships around the world, and whether our intelligence was sound, but also because we hadn’t finished the job in Afghanistan.
We hadn’t caught bin Laden. We hadn’t put al Qaeda to rest, and as a consequence, I thought that it was going to be a distraction. Now Senator McCain and President Bush had a very different judgment.
Let me get this straight… according to the new Obama, not only had we “exited” Afghanistan, but he’s complaining that “we” ( “we” being those who are no longer in charge) hadn’t accomplished the mission of capturing Bin Laden? Might be an inconvenient reminder, but it’s two years later.. Has that “mission” been accomplished by Obama?
Oh wait… doesn’t count now. The US “exited” Afghanistan in 2006. That, therefore, will be a NATO failure, not Obama failure in the age of Obama.
But doesn’t that also mean that the new US “exit plan” for Libya also does not “finish the job”?
Oh… the web we weave with “just words”. So, I guess the US is only engaged in one real war in Iraq, an “exit strategy” that was designed by his predecessor. Oh wait! We’re not even there since Obama officially declared the end of combat in the summer of 2010.
Gosh darn, everyone. Let’s celebrate! The US isn’t at war anywhere today, and we’ve officially “exited” all combat missions!
I’d say the tongue in cheek description told to James Joyner over at The Atlanticist sums it up the best…
The Italians want NATO to take over so they can avoid national responsibility (ie, tell their Arab friends “it’s not us, it’s NATO, so we don’t have a choice”).
The French want to keep NATO out because they want to prove that THEY are the true friends of the Arabs, and they’ll keep that bad NATO away.
The Germans want to keep NATO out because they don’t believe in military action, and NATO having responsibility means Germany would be held to be responsible (for further reading, see “Afghanistan”).
The Turks want to keep NATO out to prove that they are the regional power Arabs should look to to protect their interests inside NATO.
The US wants NATO to take over as a “handoff” — even though it means a handoff to ourselves. In the American political lexicon, NATO has come to mean “Europe” — and the Obama team just wants to hand off so it’s not an “Obama war.”
The UK wants to stick close to the US on this, because if the US bails, the UK doesn’t want to be holding the bag.
Apart from that, we’ve got a consensus!
Yup… CYA for everyone…. and success for none.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
I guess by full-on election mode Obama will be saying, ”We Won.”
LOL!
But he is good at one other thing.
I just heard that Obama’s brackets predictions are at 99.8 for accuracy.
That’s better than most basketball experts.
You have to watch a lot of bucketball by a lot of college kids each season to so accurately predict the outcomes of all their possible games with that degree of accuracy.
Nice to realize:
Obama may never have run a business.
Obama may never have been in the military.
Obama may not have spent much of his childhood absorbing American values by living here.
BUT Obama is a good observer of all the nuances on the basketball court.
Sad watching our fine military be forced to execute the orders of someone with so little understanding of all things military… but shortly Obama will declare Mission Accomplished. We can have victory and move on.
Of course I’ve added the truth to the statement.
Mata, and all, this is a must-read:
A very informative article.
R2P is going to be used to justify the upcoming war against Israel. This Libya attack is theatre; it is “Pallywood” on a larger scale. It is a test, and an intentional setting of precedent. The (Non-Hebrew) Palestinians are ramping up their attacks lately, poking the bear with the stick, hoping for another “Operation Cast Lead.”
The world is going to attack Israel in the guise of “Protecting” the Palestinians. Pallywood, all of it.
If you don’t know about “Pallywood”, google it. All they are, all they have ever been, is theatre. Theatre for the express purpose of bringing about the destruction of Israel. We are witness, IMHO, to the beginnings of the end. Those who have been paying attention for the last 40 years already know that, but this is the culmination, the great crescendo, the final scene of the epic.
Whoever attacks Israel, their nation will be attacked by God himself. Fires, earthquakes, riots, complete economic ruin, pestilence, death, and chaos. Not a good move by any nation, none at all. But that’s what’s coming. Probably before this Fall.
Again, IMHO.
I suppose Obama could have simply stuck with the previous administration’s exit strategy.
Don’t think he’ll wait that long, Nan G. For talking points, the “humanitarian” efforts wil be touted as a “win”, much in the same way as “jobs created/saved” was… with figures that can only be produced and verified in an alternative universe.
The stated Gaddafi out/regime change will be ignored… which is why Curt did the post on Krauthammer he did.
Via talking points, it’s a win win in the Obama campaign camp’s mind. But they’re going to have to distribute a lot of prozac to the crowds to make that pig fly.
Care to elaborate yourself into your usual rat hole, Greg?
@Taqiyyotomist, probably somewhere in the middle of each extreme is the truth. R2P has been brought up and noted in previous Libyan threads. We’re all pretty much aware of the agenda to wipe Israel off the map… some overt, some more covert. We’re also aware of the quest by all too many to have a one world agenda.
End of times? It may all be. I have to say that sometimes watching the world’s events as they unfold, that Mayan calendar bit keeps crossing my mind.
But then, human nature and events are not predisposed by history seers. They are shaped by reactions by the current inhabitants of this planet. And then, there is also the belief that the end of the Mayan calendar marks not an end at all, but a beginning.
The question may be, a beginning to what? Could swing either way. I’d like to root for the positive way, as viewed as a Constitutional/Founding Fathers conservative. But I’m one who likes to wait for more than hope and hype from govt and media mouthpieces… So I guess we’ll to wait and see.
@Nan G:
So far, he’s kept Our Boys out of Northern Ireland…
@MataHarley: Yeah. The new yardstick:
“Wars ended or saved”
The most irresponsible aspect of this Libyan misadventure is that it locks in resources that should have been held in reserve until a better perspective emerges from the turmoil in the Middle East. No matter what occurs, a lot of people are going to get killed and a number of governments are going to change. We have no idea whether they will change for the good or the bad, but if we are going to intervene, there are better prospects than Libya. Syria is starting to boil. Reports are that Iranian nationals are being captured by the Syrian opposition and these Iranians are in the employ of the regime as snipers and agents provocateur to put down the demonstrators. There are even reports that members of the secret police and intelligence services are resigning. Syria has an urbane population and it could blow just like Egypt.
Now, if ever there was a country where some US firepower could really make a difference it is Syria, for without Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and even the PA will be compromised. Syria is Iran’s proxy in the attacks against Israel and having meaningful regime change in Syria would be worth scores of Libyas. Syria has been broadly implicated in the infiltration of Al Queda operatives and fighters into Iraq. The administration made a bad choice to shoot its wad in a backwater country that means very little to the US. I can envision several scenarios where the identical issues that apparently drove the administration’s decision could arise in countries that are of much greater strategic importance to us. I think our foreign policy in the ME is in shambles. I would never have entered the Libyan civil war.
Disturber
Disturber
Did we have an exit plan when we entered World War I and II, Vietnam, Korea, and other conflicts. I have never heard that we did. We went in to win the war and worry about the exit strategy after it was won.
Let´s not forget that Bill Clinton was offered Osama bin Laden three times and refused to take him because he couldn´t find a legal reason to take him. Bush would have taken him and made others prove if he should be released.
Keep in mind that the democrat´s philosophy is that you don´t have to fool all of the people all of the time. You just have to fool enough of them to get elected.
Why do the dead only vote democrat?
As one can easily see, thanks to this President’s Muslim/ Anti-Israel leanings, the Radical Islamics are now in the process of establishing their regimes. And what the hell, we the people who lost over 3,000 on 9/11 are footing the bill! While this is going on, they have resumed bombing Israel with nary a peep from Sheik Obama! Fox News has a great story on how Al-Qaeda is right on the lead in Libya and other countries and we already know the “peaceful” group called Muslim Brotherhood is taking a lead role in Egypt! Israel will soon be surrounded by governments firmly aimed at one goal as Taqiyyotomist states in his comment. The annihilation of Israel. And this President is leading the charge! That’s the end game for those wackos over there.
The “real powers” that be will take a dim view of the destruction of Israel, when the big guy unleashes Old Testament retribution, assuming our president and the Progressives and the turncoat Liberal Jew get their way and Israel is raped by the Muslim, I doubt that the power that is instrumental in unleashing Hell on earth will be impressed with the feeble excuses, rationalizations, and whining of the enabler country ( the United States) or with the people who sat back and watched the manipulation transpire. No, those powers are not concerned with being politically correct or those who maintain their purity by being politically correct. My advice, that will help as much as any in the face of biblical retribution, is to bend down like a Muslim at prayer and kiss your ass goodbye!
@MataHarley:
It looks as though Greg has been reduced to drive-bys, parroting the left’s talking points.
Taqman, isn’t it nice, after two hundred years, our great and fearless ditherer has taken it upon himself to make us subservient to the most corrupt organization on the face of the earth: according to Obumbler, the UN can take control of our military and use it for whatever plans they might have, this is beyond absurd. We have a basketball handicapper surrendering the sovereignty of our country over to a handful of Elite dictators. If the Republicans don’t start impeachment proceedings this week, we need to replace them all. Taking a stand against tyranny would restore the faith of the American people in our Constitutional government.
To echo the current topic: I just heard that they remade the movie Red Dawn where Russia invades the US, except I think China is the invader in the new one. I have not seen the old one in years and I think with world events going the way they are its a fitting time to remake such a movie. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
@Zac: #15
After they made the movie they realized that China is a major importer of American movies. They figured China wouldn´t allow their movie in China, so they made all of the Chinese writing and flags into North Korea.
It wouldn´t surprise me if King Obama would have some war movies remade so that he could have the country that he wanted to win be the winner.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-china-red-dawn-20110316,0,995726.story
THEY will self destroy if they try to invade ISRAEL,
I’m sure ISRAEL are awarw of their agenda, and they are already on
step 1,