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6 comments:
http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2011/03/29/killing-our-way-to-a-better-america/.
Good stuff that expresses the concrete reality.
It is a conceit which depends upon the possession of superior weaponry.
A truism, and over-obvious, but often neglected anyway.
If Obama did not have the full weight of the defense industry and the expeditionary/occupation oriented US military behind him, he would sound the fool.
Freddie,
I too found that quote jarring.
But I'm curious, absent intervention, is there any counterfactual outcome that could have occurred which would have lead you to change your mind? If Qaddafi's next step was to begin wholesale slaughtering every resident in Benghazi would that have changed your mind? Or is there no plausible path this conflict could have taken that would change it for you?
From: http://highchairanalyst.blogspot.com/
What little talk in Obama’s speech there was about post-war Libya, let alone post-Gaddafi, glossed over the essential questions of who will be rebuilding and how they will do it? Obama, stating that the US “will safeguard the more than $33 billion that was frozen from the Gaddafi regime so that it is available to rebuild Libya…[since] it belongs to the Libyan people, and we will make sure they receive it” skips a pretty crucial step—the one where a decision is made as to who gets the assets. That the US controls this significant reserve is merely a reflection of just how tied into Libya’s future we will continue to be.
This speech should not have been about justifying military action; it should have been about explaining what happens after that action occurs. While he made a case, not necessarily one I agree with, for the necessity for American involvement, based around our ideals and even exceptionalism, he failed to make the case for our support of Libya’s future. What then, I ask again, about the day after tomorrow?
The last two comments illustrate how the burden of proof on intervention gets curiously inverted. When it comes to advocating or suggesting intervention, the administration found it perfectly appropriate to assert the unknowable prospect of full-scale massacre, ie, it claimed that all of us had a moral obligation to speculate about what would or could happen. Neither before nor after intervention, however, has the administration apparently felt any obligation to wonder about the future consequences of its actions, ie, the "what next" and "how does this end" questions. Those opposed to intervention have to be able to guarantee that not intervening will not lead to an unknowable set of future horrible events, while those who intervene feel no pressure at all to consider or bother about the future consequences of their own acts. Weird.
Anonymous,
I'm not arguing like you think I am. I'm sincerely asking a question, not trying to set up step 1 of a 10 step rebuke of Freddie's position. I don't have a 10 step rebuke, or a sophisticated position on this. I just want to know what Freddie thinks in regards to my question, or if it does or should play any part in his thinking on this issue. I'm really, sincerely not here to debate this issue, just discuss.
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