This is the imperial presidency on drugs — any questions?
Posted by Richard on April 2, 2011
They told me if I voted for McCain, an increasingly imperial presidency would defy Congress … aw, that's just too easy. In a classified briefing, Secretary of State Clinton told House members that the Obama administration would simply ignore any congressional effort to stop the war kinetic military action in Libya.
That was the day after Clinton, in London, declared US support for the rebels while conceding she has no idea who they are:
Most of the media headlined Clinton’s statement about possibly arming the rebels. Many stories left out what I consider her more important statement: that she really had no idea who the rebels are and that, in fact, they might actually include members of Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001.
And just a day after that, in what sounds like an April Fool's Day joke, the Obama administration threatened to bomb the rebels we're backing:
Fresh off claiming victory not over Qaddafi, but over responsibility itself, with its touted handoff of the war kinetic military effort to itself-under-different-name, the Obama administration is now swinging the guns around on those on whose behalf we have, until now, been firing, and is threatening to start bombarding the rebels along with Qaddafi’s military. This is an amazing change of direction for an administration which spent the last several days not only defending its rush to war on behalf of a group about which it had little knowledge, but openly defending its right to arm the Libyan opposition, …
…
In other words, we’ve apparently (finally) learned enough about this group of rebels/al Qaeda terrorists/rapists–and–indiscriminant–killers/who-knows-what-else that we’ve been fighting alongside (primarily from 15,000 feet and up, of course) that the Obama administration is now ready to fight them, as well – an action which would, amazingly and dumbfoundingly, make the U.S. a participant in both sides of an Arab civil war being fought in the desert of North Africa. Just amazing.
These are the Keystone Kops of foreign policy, the gang that couldn't shoot straight, the imperial presidency on drugs. This endless fumbling of the Libyan war kinetic military action would be hilarious if it weren't so serious.
David Bryant said
I agree that the Obama administration’s foreign policy is incoherent. But the particular decision to warn the rebels not to attack unarmed civilians is entirely consistent with the Security Council resolution that NATO is using as authorization for the Libyan no-fly zone.
This is what we get when we let internationalists set America’s foreign policy. Indecisiveness. Incoherence. And ultimately chaos.
I suppose it’s too late to ask Obama to read George Washington’s farewell address, and to pay attention this time. God help America.
Rick Shultz said
And some of my family and friends still wonder why, after over 40 years of this unbelievable nonsense, I am still an anarchist. Nuff’ said.