The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

OPERATION ODYSSEY DAWN: U.S. Launches Attacks on Targets in Libya

Posted on | March 19, 2011 | 48 Comments

The first Tomahawk cruise missiles hit about 3 p.m. ET today:

Military strikes by the U.S. and its allies against targets in Libya Saturday have “severely disabled” Libyan leader’s Muammar al-Qaddafi’s air defenses, a U.S. official confirms to Fox News. . . .
The Pentagon says 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been launched from U.S. and British ships in the Mediterranean, hitting more than 20 Libyan targets along the Mediterranean coastline.

Criticism of Obama from neocon racist right-wingers Michael Moore:

Moore, a frequent critic of President Bush for launching the Iraq War, unleashed a string on tweets comparing the U.S. military’s mission in Libya to Iraq and Afghanistan, using a mantra coined by Charlie Sheen:

It’s only cause we’re defending the Libyan people from a tyrant! That’s why we bombed the Saudis last wk! Hahaha. Pentagon=comedy

And we always follow the French’s lead! Next thing you know, we’ll have free health care & free college! Yay war!

We’ve had a “no-fly zone” over Afghanistan for over 9 yrs. How’s that going? #WINNING !

Khadaffy must’ve planned 9/11! #excuses

Khadaffy must’ve had WMD! #excusesthatwork

Y’know, I had been skeptical of U.S. involvement in Libya, but if Michael Moore is against it . . . well, this might be a Change We Can Believe In.

More at Memeorandum, with blog commentary from Weasel Zippers, Protein Wisdom,  Left Coast Rebel, Ann Althouse, Legal Insurrection, Pundit & Pundette, American Power, Just One Minute and The Lonely Conservative.

UPDATE: Instapundit:

Hey, it’s exactly 8 years to the day since Bush started bombing Iraq! If you voted for change, this is the change you voted for.

Meanwhile, The Rhetorican:

What’s missing? The ubiquitous sense of outrage in every nook and cranny of Leftie-dom that we couldn’t stop hearing back in 2003, before troops even started packing for Iraq.

True: The outrage is not “ubiquitous,” but what are lefties like Michael Moore going to do? They got nowhere to go. They backed the most left-wing nominee in the Democratic Party’s history — yes, Obama is further left than McGovern or Dukakis — and actually managed to get him elected. And the result is . . . ??

We’re still in Iraq and Afghanistan. Guantanamo is still in business. Bradley Manning is stripped naked in solitary confinement. Now, another military adventure. You’d think that people who’d been so blatantly screwed over, bamboozled, sold out, ripped off and stabbed in the back would eventually wise up.

But then again: They’re liberals.

UPDATE II: Lefties in Madison turn on a dime: From protesting Scott Walker to protesting the “imperialist” war. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this.

In 2001, the usual suspects had scheduled a Sept. 29 protest (“S29″) against the IMF and World Bank, which were scheduled to meet in D.C. that weekend. But after 9/11 the IMF/World Bank meetings were canceled, and so the “anti-globalization” rally instead became the first major anti-war protest of the Bush era. And I was the only journalist in Washington who wrote about that sudden switch:

Communists, go home
Anti-American protesters come to Washington

By Robert Stacy McCain
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Sept. 27, 2001

    Ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, communists are taking over Washington — or at least, the National Mall.
    Most in the media would have you believe that the protesters who  will gather Saturday are a “broad coalition” of groups (as CNN described the 1999 rioters in Seattle) or perhaps “various political, social and religious organizations” (as the New York Times described this summer’s rioters in Genoa, Italy).
    Hogwash.  They’re communists, and some of them are honest enough to admit it.
    One of the most vocal promoters of Saturday’s demonstrations is the International Action Center (IAC). The IAC’s chief spokesmen — Brian Becker and Larry Holmes – are both officials of the Worker’s World Party (WWP), a Marxist organization with a record of supporting repressive communist regimes such as Cuba and North Korea.
    The history of the WWP is instructive.  Its founder, Sam Marcy, was a follower of Leon Trotsky, the Bolshevik leader who was purged by (and later assassinated by henchmen of) Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.  Marcy split from the Socialist Workers Party after his fellow Troskyists refused to endorse the USSR’s 1956 invasion of Hungary.
    So Messrs.  Becker and Holmes, whose party began by defending  Kruschev’s military conquest of Hungary, now want to protest war and “American imperialism.” Isn’t that nice?
    But the WWP and the IAC aren’t the only commies backing Saturday’s demonstrations.  Among those sponsoring, promoting and supporting the  rally is the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
    The Young Communist League, youth affiliate of the CPUSA, carries  this message on its Web site, www.yclusa.org: “We extend our invitation for people to come to Washington D.C.  for the Peoples’ Summit . . . on September 29th.”
    Like the WWP and the IAC, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) has its own front group, Refuse & Resist (R&R), founded in 1987 by veteran RCP activist Clark Kissinger.  Mary Lou Greenberg, another RCP member, is also on the R&R National Council.
    Kissinger — who recently served a 90-day jail sentence for probation violation — was a national officer of the Students for a Democratic  Society (SDS) in the 1960s, was involved in the 1968 riots in Chicago, then left SDS.  A follower of Mao Tse-tung, Kissinger has been affiliated for more than 20 years with the Maoist RCP.
    Last year, Kissinger offered this bit of analysis: “The problem in this country is the oppressive system of capitalism that exploits people all over the world, that destroys our planet, that oppresses minority people, that sends people to the death chambers in droves.  That is a problem that has to be done away with.  Is there a solution? Yes. Revolution is the solution.”
    Advocating Maoist revolution — and promoting the ubiquitous hero of the left, Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal — has won R&R and RCP the support of rockers like Rage Against the Machine and Chumbawamba.
    The communist influence on Saturday’s protest extends far beyond the participation of avowed Marxists, Trotskyists and Maoists.  Among the scheduled speakers are members of the Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank which during the Cold War was recognized as “the perfect intellectual front for soviet activities which would be resisted if they were to originate openly from the KGB,” according to historian Brian Crozier.
    Want more?  Should any protesters manage to get themselves arrested Saturday, they will call on the attorneys of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), organized by lawyers for the Communist Party in 1936. The NLG is affiliated with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, described by the CIA in 1978 as “one of the most useful Communist front organizations at the service of the Soviet Communist Party.”
    Being old enough to remember the Cold War and to have cheered the collapse of the Soviet empire, I have to scratch my head at the crowds of young people — most of them rich, white college kids — who flock to these protests organized by communists.  Did America endure a four-decade nuclear standoff with the Evil Empire so that its children could grow up to be commies?
    I suppose many young people are victims of their baby boomer teachers, who taught them that the “peace” movement of the 1960s was all sunshine and light. Guess nobody bothered to tell the kids about the bombings perpetrated by the Weather Underground and the murders committed by the Black Panthers, to say nothing of the millions enslaved and slaughtered in Vietnam and Cambodia because of the “peace” resulting from communist victory.
    So hundreds of young people will be on the Mall, supporting the communist attack on “American imperialism.”
    It doesn’t really matter what they’re protesting, of course.  Saturday’s demonstrations were originally organized to protest against  “globalization” during the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund meetings. Those meetings were canceled after the Sept.  11 bombings, so suddenly the focus was shifted to opposing U.S.  efforts to strike back against terrorism.
    It makes no difference to the commies, you see.  Whatever the cause, the enemies are the same: America and capitalism.
    Some may ask why the “anti-globalization” movement doesn’t purge all these communists.  The simple answer is that, if all the communists were  purged, there wouldn’t be any movement left.  Behind all the rhetoric about protecting the environment and relieving poverty in the developing world, this movement is unadulterated Marxism – anti-capitalist, anti-freedom, anti-American.
    A better question is this: Why are we sending aircraft carriers halfway around the world to look for enemies, when our nation’s worst enemies — communists proclaiming an anti-American jihad — will be right there  on the grounds of the Washington Monument on Saturday?

Wow. That was nearly 10 years ago. The Bush administration missed its opportunity. They should have re-instituted the Smith Act.

UPDATE III: Angela from Red State Eclectic in the comments:

“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
— Sen. Barack Obama, Dec. 20, 2007

I believe the word is, “Heh.”

UPDATE IV: Andrew Sullivan feels compelled to issue a clarification. There’s nothing like a little reality to expose the ridiculousness of liberal “principles.”

UPDATE V: Linked by John Nolte at Big Hollywood — thanks!

UPDATE VI: Linked by the Lonely Conservative and Conservative Hideout — thanks!

UPDATE VII: Welcome, Instapundit readers!


Bookmark and Share
Category: Barack Obama, Libya, Michael Moore, Military

Comments

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike

    Well…there’s a man in Libya “that needs killin’ “.

  • Michael Lonie

    It appears that Hillary Clinton is now president.

    Once staarted this action needs to go all the way, whole hog, totus porcus, and get rid of Qadhdhaffi. This will take soldiers and Marines on the ground. At least one MEU, a brigade of the 82nd Airborne, maybe an armored brigade, and some A teams to help the rebels the way they did the Northern Alliance. Once we’ve got rid of Qadhdhaffi and put in an interim government we can pull out.

    I do not think any new government there will be particularly good for the USA. Likely it will be some Islamist religious dictatorship. But Qadhdhffi is an enemy and will be an even worse one if he survives this experience. We’ll deal with what replaces him when it comes. If they start playing footsie with Al Qaida we can always remind them of what bombing by the US is like, and how we aren’t going to put up with any nonsense from them any more.

  • Anonymous

    CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!

  • http://twitter.com/sdo1 Steve in TN

    114 cruise missiles will ruin your day, I don’t care who you are.

  • Pingback: Global Coalition Pursuing Regime Change In Arab Country…Again. « The Rhetorican

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”— Sen. Barack Obama

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    The reports I’ve read indicate that the rebels we’re supporting *are* the radical anti-Americans, including Al-Qaeda.

    Are we supposed to assume that in the future any time a rebel group attempts to overthrow a government and starts to lose that the UN will step and and assist the traitors?

    This is insane.

  • Anonymous

    If the post-Qadhaffi government in Libya is infested with Al Qaida, sure, we could “always remind them of what bombing by the U.S. is like,” but they might also remember that U.S. participation in the bombings were nudged along by French leadership and was given transnational-progressive authorization (which doesn’t necessarily mean that it would get universal support from American progressives). Okay, so what are the odds that the elite transnational progressive “community” would subsequently give its blessing for the U.S. to bomb an Al Qaida-infested Libyan government that was prudent enough to blather a bunch of Chavez-esque (“progressive”) nonsense while being hostile to American interests?

  • Aussie54

    why do people automatically assume that any new Libyan government is likely to be Islamist?

    If you had been studying what has been going on, you would draw the opposite conclusion. They are not even Al Qaeda.

    The Libyans are Sunni, and they seem to be a far cry from being Islamists. Take a good look at the way the women are dressed. Yes, they do wear a scarf but they are not in a burqa which is the Islamist uniform.

    From what I have seen they have a tendency to be pro-West, and since many of them have obtained education overseas they seem to like the idea of democracy.

    However, it is early days for them. What I admire most is they way that they organized themselves after they took Benghazi with such weapons as bbq pokers, gunpowder in tin cans, world war 1 scimitars etc.

    Gadhaffi must go. He is a scourge in the Middle East, and he has been a sponsor of terrorism for many years, including being the one who ordered the Lockerbie bombing.

  • Aussie54

    No, they are NOT Al Qaeda. That is the lie coming from Gadhaffi to win sympathy.

    The opposition is made up of tribes people. They have clearly said that they are not Al Qaeda.

  • Aussie54

    Why are people making this false claim about Al Qaeda? This particular rumour was started by Gadhaffi as justification for his slaughter of the people of Zawiya. The leaders are not involved with Al Qaeda.

    To give a contrast on behaviour might help some people to stop being so gullible when it comes to listening to Gadhaffi:

    1. Dutch SAS are captured. They are taken to prison and not released. Who captured them? What is the risk of them being beaten?

    2. British SAS, MI6 and a diplomat were captured and placed in prison. They were released within about a day of capture. They completed their mission. Who captured them and then released them without harm?

    The answer to number 2 is the opposition captured the British SAS. They were able to speak to the opposition leadership and when their identities were checked (they had multi passports) they were sent home. The answer to number 1 is Gadhaffi loyalists captured the Dutch. I have not heard that the Dutch SAS were released.

    3. Journalists have gone missing. At least 1 has been killed and several were captured and imprisoned.

    4. Journalists have been free to wander and take pictures and footage without hindrance.

    The answer here is that the Gadhaffi loyalists have captured, imprisoned and killed journalists. Four of those captured were working for the New York Times. One of them is a woman. These were in Abdabjiyah (sp) when Gadhaffi forces entered that city to shell and murder the occupants of that city. Up until the Gadhaffi forces arrived the journalists had been free to wander and take photos etc.

    Do not jump to the wrong conclusions based upon Gadhaffi lies.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Newsflash, people-the enemy of your enemy is not always necessarily your friend. Sometimes the enemy (otherwise known as Muslim insurgents) of your enemy (otherwise known as Colonel Qadaffi, and sometimes otherwise known as Barak Obama-pick your Kool-Aid) will hack your head off slowly with a rusty scimitar.

    Now sometimes when one of your enemies is killing some of your other enemies, it might even be a good idea to chill, sit back, pop some popcorn, enjoy the show, and otherwise shut the hell up.

    Do any of you know who these so-called democracy craving freedom fighters really are? Or what they are? Seriously? Do you? Hey, I admit I don’t. I do know I don’t want to jump in blind just on the off chance I might say something to make Barak Obama look bad. It’s bullshit.

  • Anonymous

    From The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Pirates:

    The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. Nothing more. And nothing less.

  • Pingback: Note to Anyone Who Still Believes a Word Obama Says: He Lies | The Lonely Conservative

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Wow, everywhere in the Middle East, there’s “freedom fighters”. What about that? For example, what about those freedom loving masses in Gaza, fighting for their freedom just earlier today by lobbing fifty-three rockets into Israel, the most at any one time in several years now? And it just so happens to coincide with the “flames of freedom” burning everywhere in the region. Those freedom fighters, huh?

    But hey, you know something, maybe you guys have a point. Hell, even if the entire region blows, erupts into flames, and is turned into a living hell on earth, that’s all right. I’m sure all those freedom loving democracy seeking masses of Arab Muslims will survive, maybe even some of them might find a new homeland, someplace willing to take in the tired and poor, those huddled masses yearning to be free.

  • Pingback: Sunday Links: Vintage Car Ad Edition | Conservative Hideout 2.0

  • http://www.dhchaos.blogspot.com El Jefe Maximo

    I agree that Daffy needs killin…but “Odyssey Dawn?” Who names these things? Odyssey Dawn sounds like the fake gang the bad guys in Die Hard were supposedly trying to bust out.

  • JeffS

    I believe the word is, “Heh.”

    “Hypocrite!” works as well. But it goes to show that ANYTHING Obama says has an expiration date. Anything.

  • JeffS

    And, once again, I believe the word is, “Heh“.

    And it feels so good, that I’m going to say it again.

    Heh!

  • http://noi.org/ Rev. Louis Farrakhan

    I warn my brother do you let these wicked demons move you in a direction that will absolutely ruin your future with your people in Africa and throughout the world…Why don’t you organize a group of respected Americans and ask for a meeting with Qaddafi, you can’t order him to step down and get out, who the hell do you think you are?

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    He thinks he’s the man who’s going to bring about a socialist brotherhood in the Middle East, and has been working behind the scenes all the time, in my opinion, to make it happen. He knows if he is too open and forthright in this goal, most Americans would accuse him of that, or possibly of supporting Islamic radicals. Some people would even say it proves he is an Islamic radical.

    So he’s been taking a more hands off approach while working through his state department, various sectors of the EU and the UN, and groups like international labor groups and Code Pink.

    And the right is falling for it, criticizing him for “not doing enough”.

    If I didn’t dislike your “brother” so much and feared so much for the consequences I would have to give him kudos for such masterful tactics. He’s probably a better chess player than he is a golfer.

  • Pingback: In Libya things are moving fast and a Poll « Da Techguy's Blog

  • Pingback: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup » Pirate's Cove

  • Daialanye

    I don’t care who they are, stirring up a hostile regime at least presents the opportunity for improvement. In this case, better the devil we don’t know.

  • Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » MICHAEL MOORE: Now a racist teabagger. Also, fat and unattractive. Some things don’t change so ea…

  • Koblog

    New Rule No. 13: let any Muslim kill any other Muslim.

  • Pingback: The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Obama, Libya and the Left

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/XU5FY6522NVDWPWWEOHB4G3R6Y John

    I figured that “Odyssey Dawn” was the nom du artiste of some porn actress.

  • http://ak4mc.us/2c/2011/ McGehee

    They backed the most left-wing nominee in the Democratic Party’s history — yes, Obama is further left than McGovern or Dukakis — and actually managed to get him elected. And the result is . . . ??

    Well then, they only need one more question mark, and you know what the next step is: PROFIT!

  • John

    Yeah, but we’ve always been at war with Eastasia ;)

  • Pingback: O-bomb-a vs Libya [Video]

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    I’m not sure about that – the UK Telegraph confirmed it.

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC
  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    Saddam Hussein was a Sunni.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Sweeney/659248298 Michael Sweeney

    When is the Left going to learn the most simple fact about Power? People with power won’t always do what you want them to! (But, they sure seem to find a way to do what THEY want.) Which is why limited government is the lesser of two evils.

    It is just bizarre how they immune they are to that single insight. Instead, they keep concluding that they must have just picked the wrong guy to give the power to. I guess that degree of cognitive inflexibility takes a university education to master….

  • Oceanspray

    Ms. Sheehan…paging Ms. Sheehan…paging Cindy Sheehan…anybody?

  • http://ak4mc.us/2c/2011/ McGehee

    Osama bin Laden is a Sunni too, as are most Wahabbists.

  • Pingback: Sunday Faith News/Views 3-30-11 @ Maggie’s Notebook | Maggie's Notebook

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    Yeah, that worked out well in Iran.

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    Then take a clue from Israel and send in a stealth assassination team.

  • Anonymous

    Perhaps we can help. Endless civil war in Libya, one down 56 or so more to go.

  • Anonymous

    Maybe they let pvt. Manning pick the name.

  • Pingback: Liberals, have you ever considered that maybe you are wrong? | The Western Experience

  • Daialanye

    If we were doing that NOW in Iran, Dear Doofus, we’d be better off. Ask yourself, why haven’t we recognized an Iranian government in exile?

    Be realistic. The more we keep them busy fighting each other the better our chances to take advantage.

  • Dai Alanye

    “And yet Hussein HATED Al Qaeda.”

    Presumably this is why he granted them training facilities. Not sure where you’re obtaining your fantasi… er, your facts.

  • David R. Graham

    Stay skeptical, Stacy. Misdirections are flying everywhere. Hillary and her fearful, angry, meddling females have backed into an ambush and O-Bomb has launched a magnificent diversion from his core initiatives, which continue unimpeded: paybacks against “the white man” and living large off “the white man’s” productivity. Ideology is a convenience to that individual. His and his partners’ real interest is “punishment” (of “the white man”) and parties (on “the white man”). He and his entourage care as much about anyone else as a hit and run driver cares about his/her intended/convenient victim. This is going to turn our very unhappily for everyone excepting O-Bomb, who plays in certainty he carries the day, and his Shi’ite/Iranian Mullah/IRGC colleagues, who are organizing the unrest in the ME. AQ is trying to get a leg up in Libya, but IRGC has the inside track because they bamboozled Khadaffi long ago into thinking they were his friends. In Libya and and Afghanistan, the solution is extirpation and colonization. They are stunningly beautiful countries, potentially lucrative business and vacation destinations. Extirpate the Haqqanis in Afghanistan/Pakistan and Khadaffi, MB and AQ in Libya and across North African and whole world relaxes.

  • Pingback: The Triumph of Raaaaacism: Liberals Get in Touch With Their Inner Teabagger : The Other McCain

  • Pingback: FMJRA 2.0: E.T.I. : The Other McCain

Performance Optimization WordPress Plugins by W3 EDGE