By the Master Gunny
"According to a report in the British media, a key rebel leader is Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi. Hasidi left Libya to fight against "the foreign invasion" of Afghanistan in 2002. In other words, he left his homeland and joined Al Qaeda to wage jihad against U.S. forces.
"The president of Chad, on Libya's southern border, is warning that Al Qaeda forces in Libya have pillaged Libyan military arsenals and seized major weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. Al Qaeda is promising to impose its version of Islam on the country once Qadhafi is gone. If that happens it helps the Islamists achieve their goal of a Middle East caliphate."
It's pretty clear the U.S. is not in control of what is happening in Libya, and entered into that fray with nothing more than military goals in mind. When it is over, we will not be in control, but it seems pretty clear Al Qaeda will be. And that helps the American position in the Middle East how?
We entered into this following after the French, without consulting the U.S. Congress, without working through the multiple possible consequences, and now we are asking NATO to take the responsibility for this fight off our hands. That we could do what we did militarily was never in question. In fact, we could have done a great more. But there is a lingering question of what our goal is and who is in charge.
For example, on a Sunday morning CBS News show, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said explicitly there were no U.S. ground troops in Libya. He said that even though the news media days before had announced the explicit presence of U.S. Army Special Forces personnel inside Libya. He explicitly lied. Or he just didn't know what was going on. Either possibility should be disturbing enough to launch at least a Congressional inquiry into what we know, when we knew it, and who the heck knows!
In terms of leadership, morals, and ethics, it seems to be every man for himself. How long before America's enemies quit trying to figure out who is in charge, and decide to begin taking us in charge?
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