If you want it done right you do it yourself.
Libyan military commanders loyal to Moammar Gaddafi are blunting the impact of NATO’s air campaign by hiding tanks and artillery in densely populated areas where the alliance’s fighter planes cannot easily reach them, U.S. and European diplomats said Wednesday.
The shift in tactics has meant fewer targets for NATO warplanes, fueling complaints by rebels who say the quality of air support has plummeted since the United States turned over command of Libyan operations to NATO. Opposition leaders say Gaddafi’s forces are inflicting particularly heavy casualties on civilians in the rebel-held city of Misurata, where dug-in loyalists have been operating with little interference from NATO missiles and bombs.
NATO officials in Brussels acknowledged carrying out fewer strikes around Misurata because of fears of inadvertently killing civilians in areas where the Libyan military was cheek by jowl with civilians.
And when we did FINALLY get in the fight, took command of the fight, and supplied our troops, equipment, and war-making know-how, the tide turned towards the “rebel” side. The waffling that Obama did for weeks pretty much sealed the fate of the conflict but if we were in command, and actually committed to the fight no one has any doubt we would of taken Gaddafi out. But as usually is the case with Obama, he didn’t do crap for days, and weeks, on end and when he finally did decide to jump in he had us stay in the shallow end of the pool. In an attempt to appease his base he said we would only be there for a few weeks and then we would be out, transferring the command to NATO.
I mean what could go wrong? Look at what a great job they did in Afghanistan.
And sure enough, they have screwed it up. Who in their right mind didn’t know that they would hide their stuff in civilian areas? I will tell you with a 100% certainty our command staff knew it….but of course we are not there anymore to command the war.
So now that the small coalition looks like fools, NOW they are thinking of sending in ground troops:
The United States may consider sending troops into Libya with a possible international ground force that could aid the rebels, according to the general who led the military mission until NATO took over.
Army Gen. Carter Ham also told lawmakers Thursday that added American participation would not be ideal, and ground troops could erode the international coalition and make it more difficult to get Arab support for operations in Libya.
It’s a small coalition to begin with, smaller then Bush had with Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are not leading it.
Can you say stalemate?
The whole thing was absurd to begin with. We had a President who spoke endlessly about his objections to President Bush committing troops to a war against a country that he felt was no threat to us, who then committed troops to a war against a country that absofreakinlutely posed no threat to us, and then to top it all off we helped those who fought against us in Afghanistan and had pretty strong ties to al-Qaeda.
The mind boggles.
But if you’re gonna do it then f**king DO IT, and do it right.
So my question is…what kind of leader commits this country to war in a half-assed fashion, and then has us run to the hills?
Answer…no leader at all.
UPDATE
And as I was writing this rant look what came over the wire:
The commander of Libya’s rebel forces has said Nato apologised for mistakenly hitting a column of rebel tanks near the eastern town of Ajdabiya.
Gen Abdelfatah Yunis said the deadly air strike had occurred despite a warning to Nato that the tanks were being moved to the front line.
Yeah….no one saw this coming at all.
Sigh…..
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