The War Party is on the warpath, with two of the biggest Usual Suspects in the lead:
“The calls are increasing in Washington for the Obama administration to take new, stronger measures to punish the Libyan government led by Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi for atrocities and to protect Libyan civilians.
“Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) implored Obama on in a press conference to establish a no-fly zone in Libya, abandon its recognition of the Qaddafi government, transfer recognition to a transitional government formed by the rebels as soon as possible, and provide the opposition with support, including weapons.”
They didn’t ask, they didn’t demand — they implored! Well, I’ve got my own imploring to do: please oh puh-leeeze, Senators McCain and Liberman, could you kindly STFU? The Libyan dictator is on his last legs, but your “imploring” could be used to garner support for Qaddafi from Libyans still on the fence.
“The government of Libya, epitomized by Muammar Qaddafi is massacring some of his people. There is very little doubt about Mr. Qaddafi’s commitment to remaining in power no matter how much blood has to be shed,” McCain said on behalf of both senators at a Friday press conference in Jerusalem. “When a government massacres its own people, it loses its legitimacy. So, we should no longer recognize the existing government of Libya.”
Hmmmm, let’s see: the government of Iraq murdered at least 11 protesters in Iraq: does that mean we should withdraw recognition from the Maliki regime? How about instituting a no-fly zone? And what about Bahrain, where the King — our loyal ally — slaughtered protesters as they slept?
The neocons and liberal interventionists behind this latest push could care less about the people of Libya: they just want to grandstand, score political points, and insert themselves into a situation that has nothing to do with them, or, frankly, with the US. Here’s more drivel from the same people who got us into Iraq, and can’t wait to get us into Iran:
“On Friday, a bipartisan group of senior mostly-Republican foreign policy experts penned an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to make good on his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, when he said, ‘Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later.’
“The experts asked Obama to call on NATO to urgently develop plans to establish an air and naval presence in Libya, freeze all Libyan government assets in the U.S. and Europe, consider halting Libyan oil imports, pledge to hold Qaddafi responsible for any atrocities, and speed humanitarian aid to the Libyan people.
“‘With violence spiraling to new heights, and with the apparent willingness of the Qaddafi regime to use all weapons at its disposal against the Libyan people, we may be on the threshold of a moral and humanitarian catastrophe,’ the experts wrote. “Inaction, or slow and inadequate measures, may not only fail to stop the slaughter in Libya but will cast doubt on the commitment of the United States and Europe to basic principles of human rights and freedoms.”
“The letter was signed by several senior GOP former officials, including Elliott Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, Eric Edelman, Eliot Cohen, Jamie Fly and Scott Carpenter, human rights activities David Kramer and Neil Hicks, and Clinton administration official John Shattuck.
“‘The United States and our European allies have a moral interest in both an end to the violence and an end to the murderous Libyan regime. There is no time for delay and indecisiveness,’ they wrote. ‘The people of Libya, the people of the Middle East, and the world require clear U.S. leadership in this time of opportunity and peril.'”
What are these “experts” so “expert” at, except creating fake “emergencies” and very real policy disasters? Bill Kristol should be barred — by law — from making any substantive comment on foreign policy matters, under pain of having to go fight in the frontlines of the next war he manages to gin up. As for Wolfowitz and all the rest: that these people have no shame is axiomatic, but one would think that the key role they all played in launching the biggest strategic disaster in US history would relegate coverage of this “open letter” to The Onion.
