Sweeping Democracy in the Middle East?

The British military apparently had to go in and rescue U.K. citizenss in Libya.

[LIBYA, 1:08 a.m. ET Monday, 8:08 a.m. Monday local] British Prime Minister David Cameron says a military-led rescue mission into the Libyan desert was "the right thing to do," despite the fact that U.K. planes didn't have permission to enter Libyan airspace.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/2...ts-gadhafi-blasts-un-security-council/?hpt=T2
 
Now we're talkin'!! :thumb:

[LIBYA, 11:16 a.m. ET Monday, 6:17 p.m. local] The United States is "repositioning" naval and air forces in the Mediterranean/North Africa region to be prepared for any option that they may need to exercise, Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan tells CNN
 
Watching CNN right now, and they are discussing possible invasion by the United States in Libya to forceably remove Gaffafi. I think that would be a mistake.
 
Watching CNN right now, and they are discussing possible invasion by the United States in Libya to forceably remove Gaffafi. I think that would be a mistake.

I agree, the fight to liberate Libya should be left to the Libyans, with support from the US of course, just not direct military support unless asked for.
 
If the UN were in existence in the 1860s, it would have been totally weird if, say, Germany or Great Britain thought it was best to forceably remove Abraham Lincoln because he was using force against his own citizens. I am not comparing Gaddafi to Lincoln, but the right of self-determination is a right that exclusive reserved to nations. I don't think it is wise for the UN to intervene, but I soooo want to help these people really bad. Complicated stuff, and I'm still thinking about it.

I continue to believe that Gaddafi is a nut-job, and I look forward to a bigger, brighter future for Libya.
 
I think that if we do no fly over Libya, it will be done more like Gulf1 when every country joins in.

I know it is all over the news about our gas prices, and the impact it will have on a weak economy, but Europe actually is feeling it much worse economically.

Let's be real in the UK they have $9 a gallon gas prices, and to save the govt money they even have lowered the wattage on their street lights at night.

If we are looking at $5 a gallon, you would see Europe paying 12-15 a gallon. An economy in a deep recession, where they just raised the retirement age (aka France) or dimming lights (aka England) and has high unemployment (aka Germany) cannot afford to pay that amount for gasoline (aka Petrol).


To me Obama would be a fool to do a no fly zone unless he had equal amount of planes doing it from our allies. If he went it alone it would just fan the flames of "who do the American's think they are?" It would fan the flames that it is all about oil! The reason Saddam IMPO backed down as quick as he did for Gulf 1 was because he got it, there was nobody coming to his defense.

The other reason I think you need everyone is Libya and Israel are not buddy buddy, and we could be opening a whole different level of issues. Israel is not ask questions first and than shoot...they are shoot first. I am not attacking them, just saying that is their MO.

I will say the Egypt uprising didn't make me turn to Bullet and go what do you think about this and us getting involved. This is different, to the point I turned to Bullet and said do you think we are going to do no-fly? Maybe it is we have had decades of issues with them...Berlin bombing, Libya air raid, Lockerbie, and the release of that bomber. That is close to 30 yrs of issues.
 
From the Daily Mail:

The U.S. Navy was repositioning its heavy-hitting warships around North Africa today as America and Britain dramatically increased pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, which had been had been on pirate-hunting duty off the coast of Somalia, is now steaming to the mouth of the Suez Canal in the Red Sea.
The deadly strike force aboard the nuclear-powered carrier is already within flying distance of Libya but the Enterprise is said to be heading closer to country and its rogue dictator.
.........................................

While the Pentagon would not confirm whether the Enterprise was preparing for an intervention mission, world leaders last night dramatically ramped up pressure on Libya - with British Prime Minister David Cameron vowing to set up a no-fly zone and use 'military assets' to protect the Libyan people against further attack.
Mr Cameron said: ‘We must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people. In that context I have asked the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Staff to work with our allies on plans for a military no-fly zone. My message to Colonel Gaddafi is simple: "Go now".’

The Prime Minister threatened Colonel Gaddafi with military action, saying if he turned his air force on the rebels, RAF warplanes would be able to intervene.
There was no immediate U.S. response to Mr Cameron's comments - but the current movements of its Navy suggest a co-ordinated move against Gaddafi was underway.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-threaten-Gaddafi-fly-zone.html#ixzz1FMRaH0E6


The Enterprise - on their way to support forces in Afghanistan - had just gone through the Suez when they got 'sidetracked' by pirates and now they have done a turn around.

Looks like the 'part-timers' may see some action if they have to go against Libyan fighters.
 
I think that this has become a game of chicken, and unfortunately the US is dealing with another leader that mentally is not all there, and has sons who are power hungry. Not a good mix!

My true fear is we are going to continue to see more unrest in this region. Look at Saudi it is now bubbling, this is like a wildfire in CA; hard to contain.
 
Threatening to kill his citizens, I thought he already did that with his own air strikes!

I think Gates said it all yesterday, this issue is very complex.
 
"Complex" is an understatement. Tons of international law issues involved: comity, self-determination, role of UN in unseating a head of state, not to mention political issues such as whether the next Palestinians will claim "double standard" if UN doesn't come to their aid in the next uprising, or whether Iran will benefit from all of this, etc. Good thing we have a lot of brainpower on this.

Incidently, here is an article entitled "US Mulling Military Options in Libya".

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/02/libya.military.options/index.html?hpt=T2
 
I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not optimistic that all these uprisings will end up being good for the USA.

Sorry, but all of this is eerily similar to what was happening in Iran in 1979. We even have the same kind of incompetence in the White House.

Scary...
 
Frankly, I never thought I would live to see this kind of photo coming out of the Middle East. I am very optimistic about this situation.



libyasquare.jpg
 
Geez, I'm not optimistic at all....this could fall apart quickly...the rebellion is the easy part.
 
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