sundance:
Part I Link – The Origin Of The Libyan Crisis
Part Two – An Administration Desperate To Catch Up
Against two weeks of silence in February 2011, and a fawning U.S. media beginning to doubt their own beliefs in the administration, the White House begins damage control for their earlier detachment.
When Susan Rice skipped a Feb 25, 2011 emergencyweekend U.N. Security Council meeting, the Obama administration was compromised in their ability to influence any real outcome in Libya.
Without the U.S. seated at the policy table the U.N. made two strategic resolutions/decisions which were brutally short-sighted.
The first mistake was a resolution banning the sale or transfer of arms or weaponry into Libya during the civil war. On it’s face the ban might sound like a generally good idea; however, in reality it was exceptionally self-defeating. After all, it banned all weapons from entering Libya, including weapons for the opposition – which most thought would be needed for the “rebels” to defend themselves.
The second mistake was criminal charges brought about by the ICC (International Criminal Court) against the Kaddaffi regime. Nothing tells a dictator to double down on his position like telling him you as soon as this is over we will lock you and your family up for life.
Essentially those charges filed by the ICC solidified the certainty that Kaddaffiwould never compromise. He was drawn to a bold position that either he would win the civil war, or he would die trying. Losing the war would mean death or a life in prison – one of these was now certain. So what did Kaddaffi have to lose by fighting?
This Security Council resolution highlights the emotional short-sighted outcome of most U.N. determinations. However, historically the U.S. has tempered logic to the 6 nation table of stupidity. But not this time. This time, at the specific direction of President Obama and his policy team, the U.S. did not even participate.
However, while the White House may have been annoyingly quiet, Hillary Clinton certainly was not. This lack of synergy led to multiple instances where Clinton’s publically voiced opinion ran exactly opposite to the Obama administration’s position she was supposedly representing.
The international optic was a completely out of sync with the White House and State Department. Sometimes embarrassingly so.
The U.S. government came under fire today for chartering a rescue boat for Americans stuck in Libya that is too small to cope with the rough Mediterranean sea.
Hundreds of American citizens were finally set to depart Tripoli harbour aboard the Maria Dolores, a small passenger ferry chartered by the U.S., trapped there by rough seas.
At the same time larger Greek and Turkish vessels have transported thousands of their own citizens to safety, crossing the choppy water to mainland Europe. (link)
The State Department was struggling with multiple plates spinning simultaneously. Secretary Clinton was noticeably unprepared to handle the heavy lifting. From the botched messaging, to the failure to evacuate American citizens from Western Libya, we watched as it almost seemed President Obama was enjoying Hillary being overwhelmed.
While Hillary had been trying to fill the February void left by Obama’s silence, another key player was working policy structure behind the scenes.
One of Obama’s little known advisors named Samanta Power began to play a more important role.
Power is the wife of Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein, in 2001 she was a foreign policy advisor to President Obama along with Denis McDonough and Tom Donilon.
However, Power increasingly held a sway when it came to Libya, and her influence was soon noted with the introduction of the “Responsibility to Protect” Doctrine, or as it became known R2P.
Essentially her approach was to frame the possibility of defeat upon the Libyan Rebels in a similar venue as the historical Rwanda genocide. The potential slaughter of the Libyan Benghazi uprising was framed around a need for Humanitarian Intervention.
