Tracers from anti-aircraft guns are seen above the hotel where foreign media and government officials are staying in Tripoli, Libya, as explosions rock the city Monday.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wasn’t thrilled with the U.N. Security Council’s go-ahead to let U.S. and European forces fire on Moammar Gadhafi’s troops in Libya, and he said so Monday. He wasn’t alone in his criticism of what began as a plan to enforce a no-fly zone but by the end of the weekend was looking more like a substantial air war, complete with Tomahawk missiles and B-2 bombers.
Gadhafi, true to form, remained defiant and pointed westward to accuse coalition forces of killing Libyan civilians, and on the domestic front Obama’s critics wondered where the campaign that started with the grandiosely named Operation Odyssey Dawn would end, and what exactly was the point. —KA
The Washington Post:
Air Force B-2 stealth bombers as well as Marine Harrier jets flying from a ship in the Mediterranean followed up on the dozens of Tomahawk cruise-missile strikes that opened the assault on Libya, called Operation Odyssey Dawn. U.S. fighter jets mounted attacks on Libyan soldiers advancing on the rebel-held city of Benghazi as part of a broader mission to protect the besieged opposition forces from being overrun, said a senior U.S. military official.
The strikes, which were carried out by 15 U.S. fighter jets as well as French and British planes, left a smoking graveyard of military vehicles outside Benghazi.
[...] The United States also mounted strikes with satellite-guided bombs on an airfield outside the coastal city of Misurata, where the Libyan air force maintained fighter jets in hardened shelters. Gaddafi continued to keep the Soviet-era fighters on the ground, and the United States detected no radar emissions from any of the air defense sites that it had targeted, military officials said.
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Regarding the justifications for war with Iraq, state Sen. Obama was unpersuaded: “I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted U.N. inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity ... But ... Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors ...”
Today, as President of the United States, we see American Military in Libya. I guess things look different than they do from the State House in Illinois.
Obama is now, in the true definition of the phrase a “New-Conservative”.
By James, March 21, 2011 at 11:32 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Thank goodness the comments here are sane and reveal that thinking people
can see through the lies.
Anyone notice how The Huffington Post already a tool of the establishment and
only keeping liberals contained with a fake opposition front?
There is so much tragedy going on in the world, and Americans needs to wake
up and face the painful truth… Obama is not the man we thought, and this is
not the change we voted for.
It is what no one is talking about. It is the elephant in the room. All of the
hoopla—and all of my volunteering—were for a puppet candidate. There is
no more debate. People of character and intellect must throw him out or we
will only worsen our slide towards totalitarianism.
How can any rational person look on the situation in Libya today and believe France and Britain are leading this U.N. mandated effort? How is that even possible?
Obama is now, officially, the neo “New-Conservative”.
Where have we seen this scenario before? The parallels with Iraq are too familiar… no congressional input or approval.. cajoling the UN to go along with it (5 abstentions?), and a claim that a regime change is not part of the plan (yet)?
Its always entertaining to hear the generals on the cable networks get in their groove again, touting our amazing ability to wipe out some 3rd rate power!
Of course, Yemen is a totally different scenario! No similarities there!
Wait a minute! Where’s the Congressional OK? This war is absolutely unconstitutional. Obama should be impeached. Robert Gates should be arrested and the top generals court martialed. U.S. generals answer to the Constitution.
Is this a declaration of a one world government on the sly?
Troubles in Libya and with Libya have been foreseen for years. Yet arms dealers
have been only too happy to profit from selling weapons to the dictator whose
sanity has been in doubt for some time. Why are world leaders so blind as to
fail to anticipate trouble spots and act in new, creative ways, using peace-making
efforts of every kind insistently in order to either bring about change without war
or try all known initiatives toward discouraging violence? Violence is preventable
unless it is ignored, in which case it accelerates. Of course arms dealers make
money from that escalation. That’s a huge part of what keeps wars going. I
suspect that a good deal of the delay in trying peaceful methods is due to the
money made by war industries which at present are perhaps one of the most
economically stable money-makers on earth. A sad commentary on the future.
Too bad the U.N. does not have a mandate sufficiently strong to resist the
financial temptations of entrepreneurs without conscience.
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By Go Right Young Man, March 22, 2011 at 8:30 am Link to this comment
Regarding the justifications for war with Iraq, state Sen. Obama was unpersuaded: “I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted U.N. inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity ... But ... Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors ...”
Today, as President of the United States, we see American Military in Libya. I guess things look different than they do from the State House in Illinois.
Obama is now, in the true definition of the phrase a “New-Conservative”.
Report thisBy James, March 21, 2011 at 11:32 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Thank goodness the comments here are sane and reveal that thinking people
can see through the lies.
Anyone notice how The Huffington Post already a tool of the establishment and
only keeping liberals contained with a fake opposition front?
There is so much tragedy going on in the world, and Americans needs to wake
up and face the painful truth… Obama is not the man we thought, and this is
not the change we voted for.
It is what no one is talking about. It is the elephant in the room. All of the
Report thishoopla—and all of my volunteering—were for a puppet candidate. There is
no more debate. People of character and intellect must throw him out or we
will only worsen our slide towards totalitarianism.
By Go Right Young Man, March 21, 2011 at 7:15 pm Link to this comment
How can any rational person look on the situation in Libya today and believe France and Britain are leading this U.N. mandated effort? How is that even possible?
Obama is now, officially, the neo “New-Conservative”.
Report thisBy Taoseno, March 21, 2011 at 6:41 pm Link to this comment
Where have we seen this scenario before? The parallels with Iraq are too familiar… no congressional input or approval.. cajoling the UN to go along with it (5 abstentions?), and a claim that a regime change is not part of the plan (yet)?
Its always entertaining to hear the generals on the cable networks get in their groove again, touting our amazing ability to wipe out some 3rd rate power!
Of course, Yemen is a totally different scenario! No similarities there!
Report thisBy bud, March 21, 2011 at 5:38 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Wait a minute! Where’s the Congressional OK? This war is absolutely unconstitutional. Obama should be impeached. Robert Gates should be arrested and the top generals court martialed. U.S. generals answer to the Constitution.
Is this a declaration of a one world government on the sly?
Report thisBy gerard, March 21, 2011 at 4:29 pm Link to this comment
Troubles in Libya and with Libya have been foreseen for years. Yet arms dealers
Report thishave been only too happy to profit from selling weapons to the dictator whose
sanity has been in doubt for some time. Why are world leaders so blind as to
fail to anticipate trouble spots and act in new, creative ways, using peace-making
efforts of every kind insistently in order to either bring about change without war
or try all known initiatives toward discouraging violence? Violence is preventable
unless it is ignored, in which case it accelerates. Of course arms dealers make
money from that escalation. That’s a huge part of what keeps wars going. I
suspect that a good deal of the delay in trying peaceful methods is due to the
money made by war industries which at present are perhaps one of the most
economically stable money-makers on earth. A sad commentary on the future.
Too bad the U.N. does not have a mandate sufficiently strong to resist the
financial temptations of entrepreneurs without conscience.