In Libya, Obama playing the cards he’s been dealt
President Obama’s decision to join our European and Arab allies in launching air assaults against Libyan forces has been criticized by some as an ad hoc, patched-together reaction rather than a carefully thought-out strategy. And to a degree, they’re right. Sometimes, an unexpected and quickly changing situation does not permit the careful application of strategy. Sometimes, you just have to play your cards as they are dealt, recalculating risk and reward as each card is flipped your way. I don’t know how this is going to play out, but so far Obama seems to be playing his hand rationally and cautiously.
Sure, intervening earlier against Gadhafi on the side of the Libyan rebels might have proved more effective in military terms, but it also would have put the United States in the position of trying to dictate outcomes in the Arab world. And not intervening at all, as some on the left still advocate, was a cruel option at best. Had the coalition not acted when it did last week, the world today would probably be sitting back and watching helplessly while a brutal Gadhafi massacred tens of thousands of his fellow Libyans.
Many of those now condemning Obama for acting would have been condemning him for not acting. That’s how these things go. As Obama himself noted in his Nobel Peace Prize speech, “I believe that force can be justified on humanitarian grounds, as it was in the Balkans, or in other places that have been scarred by war. Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later. That is why all responsible nations must embrace the role that militaries with a clear mandate can play to keep the peace.”
The fact that we are acting, somewhat reluctantly, at the urging of European and Arab allies also minimizes the geo-political risk. This is not an American initiative in which the United Nations and others are being strong-armed to support our policy; this is an international initiative which the United States has agreed to join as its most powerful member. There’s a world of difference between the two, not least because it has forced other countries to shed their infantilism and take responsibility, rather than leaving the tough decisions to Uncle Sam all the time and then grumbling about the outcome.
Obama’s critics also point out that we have no real idea how this will end, or even how we want it to end. Again, that’s accurate to a degree. However, Gadhafi himself has made it clear that he sees only two possible outcomes: victory or death. He has no third option — at this point, he can’t leave Libya to live elsewhere, and he knows it.
Publicly, coalition leaders are saying that Gadhafi is not a military target, but the smoking ruins of his personal compound in Tripoli offer more convincing evidence to the contrary. And at some point, if Western air power doesn’t take him out, his own commanders might. They now see their units being taken apart from the air, and there’s nothing they can do to defend themselves. The quickest way to make it stop is to make Gadhafi stop.
So we shall see.
– Jay Bookman
ADDENDUM: After all these years, the cynicism of Newt Gingrich continues to amaze and even disgust.
Until last week, the former speaker had been pressing Obama to intervene militarily in Libya and force Gadhafi’s ouster. “This is a moment to get rid of him,” he told Greta Van Susteren on Fox. “Do it. Get it over with.”
So what does he say now? As Politico reports:
“Newt Gingrich blasted the decision to attack Libya Sunday afternoon as “opportunistic amateurism without planning or professionalism.”
“It is impossible to make sense of the standard for intervention in Libya except opportunism and news media publicity,” Gingrich said in a statement to POLITICO, his first public comments since President Barack Obama gave the go-ahead order on Saturday.
Iran and North Korea pose “vastly bigger threats” to American national interests, he argued. There are other countries in Africa where strongmen brutalize civilians, including Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
“Mugabe has killed more people, the Sudanese dictatorship has killed more people, there are a lot of bad dictators doing bad things,” Gingrich said.
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1,639 comments Add your comment
TaxPayer
March 21st, 2011
1:28 pm
What’s the difference between the neighborhood slut that you have to take to dinner and the one that just hops in bed? Just the price I guess. Obama just requires a little bit of wining and dining apparently.
jm appears to have quite the fond memories of Bush.
BMDPD
March 21st, 2011
1:28 pm
Swede, I have plenty of experience with Muslims. That is what is so funny. If I had time I would tell you a story of a Muslim ‘friend’ and what he did. Where he put his priorities. Your issue is that you are dumb enough to believe them. “Islam is a religion of peace, my friend.”
AmVet
March 21st, 2011
1:31 pm
Kam, you and others here are correct; three words are all that is needed at this point.
Tick…tick…tick….
The only real question is how soon.
MPercy
March 21st, 2011
1:33 pm
Doggone/GA @12:03 pm “do you not remember the weapons inspectors? Hans Blix mean anything to you?” I does indeed. He and his team reported that they were given access to every site they requested, including Saddam Hussein’s personal compounds and residences and NO WMD were found.
That’s not what he (Blix) said.
I shall only give some examples of issues and questions that need to be answered, and I turn first to the sector of chemical weapons.
The nerve agent VX is one of the most toxic ever developed. Iraq has declared that it only produced VX on a pilot scale, just a few tons, and that the quality was poor and the product unstable.
Consequently, it was said that the agent was never weaponized.
Iraq said that the small quantity of [the] agent remaining after the Gulf War was unilaterally destroyed in the summer of 1991.
UNMOVIC, however, has information that conflicts with this account. There are indications that Iraq had worked on the problem of purity and stabilization and that more had been achieved than has been declared. Indeed, even one of the documents provided by Iraq indicates that the purity of the agent, at least in laboratory production, was higher than declared.
There are also indications that the agent was weaponized. In addition, there are questions to be answered concerning the fate of the VX precursor chemicals, which Iraq states were lost during bombing in the Gulf War or were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq.
I would now like to turn to the so-called air force document that I have discussed with the council before. This document was originally found by an UNSCOM inspector in a safe in Iraqi air force headquarters in 1998, and taken from her by Iraq minders. It gives an account of the expenditure of bombs, including chemical bombs by Iraq in the Iraq-Iran War. I’m encouraged by the fact that Iraq has now provided this document to UNMOVIC.
The document indicates that 13,000 chemical bombs were dropped by the Iraqi air force between 1983 and 1998, while Iraq has declared that 19,500 bombs were consumed during this period. Thus, there is a discrepancy of 6,500 bombs. The amount of chemical agent in these bombs would be in the order of about 1,000 tons. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we must assume that these quantities are now unaccounted for.
The discovery of a number of 122 mm chemical rocket warheads in a bunker at the storage depot, 170 kilometers southwest of Baghdad, was much publicized. This was a relatively new bunker, and therefore the rockets must have been moved here in the past few years at a time when Iraq should not have had such munitions. The investigation of these rockets is still proceeding.
Normal
March 21st, 2011
1:35 pm
Sweet Haysus,
You just gotta love religion of any type…
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/03/ap-bahrain-king-makes-veiled-charge-against-iran-032111/
MPercy
March 21st, 2011
1:36 pm
Doggone/GA @12:03 pm “do you not remember the weapons inspectors? Hans Blix mean anything to you?” I does indeed. He and his team reported that they were given access to every site they requested, including Saddam Hussein’s personal compounds and residences and NO WMD were found.
He said more things too:
I turn to biological weapons. I mention the issue of anthrax to the council on previous occasions, and I come back to it as it is an important one. Iraq has declared that it produced about 8,500 liters of this biological warfare agent, which it states it unilaterally destroyed in the summer of 1991.
Iraq has provided little evidence for this production and no convincing evidence for its destruction.
There are strong indications that Iraq produced more anthrax than it declared and that at least some of this was retained over the declared destruction date. It might still exist.
Either it should be found and be destroyed under UNMOVIC supervision or else convincing evidence should be produced to show that it was indeed destroyed in 1991.
As I reported to the council on the 19th of December last year, Iraq did not declare a significant quantity, some 650 kilos, of bacterial growth media, which was acknowledged as reported in Iraq’s submission to the Amorim panel in February 1999. As a part of its 7 December 2002 declaration Iraq resubmitted the Amorim panel document but the table showing this particular import of media was not included. The absence of this table would appear to be deliberate, as the pages of the resubmitted document were renumbered.
In the letter of 24th of January this year to the president of the Security Council, Iraq’s foreign minister stated that, I quote, “All imported quantities of growth media were declared.” This is not evidence. I note that the quantity of media involved would suffice to produce, for example, about 5,000 liters of concentrated anthrax.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:37 pm
“Kam, you and others here are correct; three words are all that is needed at this point.”
Uh huh.
Dave R.
March 21st, 2011
1:37 pm
“Don’t you think that, run as a business, it would make enough to pay salaries and put a little back in the til?”
No. Not even remotely possible.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:37 pm
ObamaGraib
‘Repugnant’: U.S. army apologises for graphic photos of soldiers with civilian corpses as violence is feared in Afghanistan
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368314/German-newspaper-publishes-suppressed-photos-U-S-soldiers-posing-partially-naked-Afghan-corpse.html#ixzz1HFz7R9Tg
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:38 pm
AmVet
What I type is nothing compared to the sophomoric comments you make.
jm
March 21st, 2011
1:39 pm
That much his administration has achieved. In its opening phase, at least, our war in Libya looks like the beau ideal of a liberal internationalist intervention. It was blessed by the United Nations Security Council. It was endorsed by the Arab League. It was pushed by the diplomats at Hillary Clinton’s State Department, rather than the military men at Robert Gates’s Pentagon. Its humanitarian purpose is much clearer than its connection to American national security. And it was initiated not by the U.S. Marines or the Air Force, but by the fighter jets of the French Republic.
This is an intervention straight from Bill Clinton’s 1990s playbook, in other words, and a stark departure from the Bush administration’s more unilateralist methods. There are no “coalitions of the willing” here, no dismissive references to “Old Europe,” no “you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” Instead, the Obama White House has shown exquisite deference to the very international institutions and foreign governments that the Bush administration either steamrolled or ignored.
This way of war has obvious advantages. It spreads the burden of military action, sustains rather than weakens our alliances, and takes the edge off the world’s instinctive anti-Americanism. Best of all, it encourages the European powers to shoulder their share of responsibility for maintaining global order, instead of just carping at the United States from the sidelines.
But there are major problems with this approach to war as well. Because liberal wars depend on constant consensus-building within the (so-called) international community, they tend to be fought by committee, at a glacial pace, and with a caution that shades into tactical incompetence. And because their connection to the national interest is often tangential at best, they’re often fought with one hand behind our back and an eye on the exits, rather than with the full commitment that victory can require.
These problems dogged American foreign policy throughout the 1990s, the previous high tide of liberal interventionism. In Somalia, the public soured on our humanitarian mission as soon as it became clear that we would be taking casualties as well as dispensing relief supplies. In the former Yugoslavia, NATO imposed a no-flight zone in 1993, but it took two years of hapless peacekeeping and diplomatic wrangling, during which the war proceeded unabated, before American air strikes finally paved the way for a negotiated peace.
Our 1999 intervention in Kosovo offers an even starker cautionary tale. The NATO bombing campaign helped topple Slobodan Milosevic and midwifed an independent Kosovo. But by raising the stakes for both Milosevic and his Kosovo Liberation Army foes, the West’s intervention probably inspired more bloodletting and ethnic cleansing in the short term, exacerbating the very humanitarian crisis it was intended to forestall.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/opinion/21douthat.html?_r=1
MPercy
March 21st, 2011
1:39 pm
Doggone/GA @12:03 pm “do you not remember the weapons inspectors? Hans Blix mean anything to you?” I does indeed. He and his team reported that they were given access to every site they requested, including Saddam Hussein’s personal compounds and residences and NO WMD were found.
Hans Blix had more to say:
Iraq has also declared the recent import of chemicals used in propellants, test instrumentation and guidance and control system. These items may well be for proscribed purposes; that is yet to be determined.
What is clear is that they were illegally brought into Iraq; that is, Iraq or some company in Iraq circumvented the restrictions imposed by various resolutions.
Mr. President, I have touched upon some of the disarmament issues that remain open and that need to be answered if dossiers are to be closed and confidence is to arise.
Which are the means at the disposal of Iraq to answer these questions?
I have pointed to some during my presentation of the issues, let me be a little more systematic. Our Iraqi counterparts are fond of saying that there are no proscribed items and if no evidence is presented to the contrary, they should have the benefit of the doubt; be presumed innocent.
UNMOVIC, for its part, is not presuming that there are proscribed items and activities in Iraq. But nor is it, or I think anyone else, after the inspections between 1991 and ‘98 presuming the opposite, that no such items and activities exist in Iraq. Presumptions do not solve the problem; evidence and full transparency may help.
The recent inspection find in the private home of a scientist of a box of some 3,000 pages of documents, much of it relating to the lacing enrichment of uranium, support a concern that has long existed that documents might be distributed to the homes of private individuals. This interpretation is refuted by the Iraqi side which claims that research staff sometimes may bring papers from their work places.
On our side, we cannot help but think that the case might not be isolated and that such placements of documents is deliberate to make discovery difficult and to seek to shield documents by placing them in private homes
jm
March 21st, 2011
1:39 pm
Love me some Liberal War.
Thulsa Doom
March 21st, 2011
1:40 pm
Mick,
Sorry dude but I just deal in facts. Here are the facts sir regarding deficits as a % of GDP.
* Bush average: 2.7% (including the 8.3% for FY 2009 when President Bush left office in January);
* Obama average (projected for two terms spanning nine fiscal years): 6.35%
The Bush presidency shows eight years of deficits averaging 2.0 percent of GDP, followed by a horrible ninth year as the markets collapsed and the economy plunged into recession. … Even 2008’s bigger deficit than 2007 can be mostly explained by a revenue decline as the economy slipped into recession pre-crash.
Before the crash of late 2008 President Bush’s budget deficits were 0.6 percentage points smaller than the historic average. Deficits did not “spiral” during the Bush presidency or the decade. The bumped around the historic average, then spiked up in the last year.
Yeah, but what about that horrible 8.3% in 2009 when President Bush left office? That figure is a combination of a severe decline in federal revenues as the economy tanked, plus the projected costs of TARP for fiscal year 2009. If we include that terrible ninth year in the Bush average (as we should), then the average Bush deficit is still only 2.7%, one tenth of a percentage point above the average over the past four decades. (All data are from CBO’s [the Congressional Budget Office's] historic tables.)
Yes, that last year sucked. Yes, when President Obama took office he faced an enormous projected budget deficit for his first year in office (which jumped from 8.3% when President Bush left in January to 9.9% at the end of that fiscal year).
But it is inaccurate and misleading to characterize the previous decade as “a decade of spiraling deficits.”
And the reality as I’ve pointed out to you is that Obama has continued spending like a drunken sailor and his own Administration’s has large projected deficits through 2020. Next you’re probably going to dispute the obama administration’s own projected deficits.
Dave R.
March 21st, 2011
1:40 pm
“So far, this rep house has been a bust….”
More deflection, Mick.
And only two months in, with a Democrat-led Senate? Please. Could you at least TRY to show some objectivity once in a while?
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:41 pm
Mick
Still waiting on your answer to the comment I made.
Kamchak
March 21st, 2011
1:42 pm
Normal
How much do drunken sailors usually spend? Just askin’.
BMDPD
March 21st, 2011
1:44 pm
Normal, that is why we need to Bomb Bahrain immediately. They are killing civilians there. Thus, they must be bombed! Right? Isn’t that proper logic?
jm
March 21st, 2011
1:46 pm
Liberal Wars are good wars, Conservative Wars are bad wars.
MOM
March 21st, 2011
1:47 pm
WOW- “What I type is nothing”
Fixed for her.
Mrs. Butterworth
March 21st, 2011
1:50 pm
Quote of the Day:
But Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, chairman of the House budget subcommittee on higher education, said all students need the state’s help.
“I don’t make any distinction between Georgia’s children, whether they decide to go to a private or public institution,” said Ehrhart, a leading proponent of k-12 private school vouchers. “I think we ought to support them.”
Paul
March 21st, 2011
1:51 pm
WOW
“AmVet What I type is nothing compared to the sophomoric comments you make” comebacks are beginning to sound a lot like
http://tinyurl.com/4zcxozw
just sayin’ -
Bosch
March 21st, 2011
1:52 pm
Well, I’m way late to the party today, but in my opinion, this is the right thing to do. It’s not being done unilaterially, we have the approval of the Arab League and this is a NATO mission where the command will soon be handed to the French or British.
Should have been done years ago.
Bob
March 21st, 2011
1:52 pm
Where is code pink ? Is this a war for oil ?
Mick
March 21st, 2011
1:52 pm
doom
You still did not account for the iraq war spending, it did cost close to a trillion or more, correct? The only spending on obama’s watch was the stimulus which I know all repubs hate and villify yet gladly took the money when it would benefit them…
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 21st, 2011
1:53 pm
Liberal Wars are good wars, Conservative Wars are bad wars.
If only you realized how absolutely fu*king childish you sound saying something like that…. War is hell. Military personnel die regardless to whomever is in charge in DC. Put your ass on the ground in Afghanistan and tell me if you can discern whether it’s Liberal or Conservative. It’s foolishness such as that which keeps any grown-up dialogue from happening in this country…..
Normal
March 21st, 2011
1:54 pm
Kamchak
March 21st, 2011
1:42 pm
Every penny!
_________________________________
BMDPD
March 21st, 2011
1:44 pm
I hope that was just a lame attempt to be funny.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:54 pm
“You still did not account for the iraq war spending, it did cost close to a trillion or more, correct?”
Speaking of not answering questions……….
jm
March 21st, 2011
1:54 pm
Anybody ready for a US vacation from War? If so, vote Libertarian 2012.
Mick
March 21st, 2011
1:54 pm
**Liberal Wars are good wars, Conservative Wars are bad wars**
There is no credence to that comment, most all wars are bad.
Bosch
March 21st, 2011
1:55 pm
Mick,
I haven’t read all the comments today, is Doom back? Cool (if that’s the case). I like the Doom.
George W
March 21st, 2011
1:55 pm
Mick….you are right the ObamaCare bill has not cost us anything! NICE
MPercy
March 21st, 2011
1:55 pm
Mick @1:27 pm doom Why is the deficit 1.6 trillion? the iraq war was off the books during bush, that is a fact, obama put it ON the books. This has been argued ad infinitum, sorry you missed it…
Bush’ last budget deficit was about $485B(*). The annual cost of the wars is about $133B (about $5.4B/month in Iraq, about $5.7B/month in Afghanistan). If the wars were moved from off-book to on-bok as you state, the deficit would be $618B, if Pres. Bush budget were in play.
Instead we have $1.6T deficit, and the wars are being wound down, with *only* 50,000 “non-combat” troops providing “security”. The extra $1T is spent on what exactly?
(*) TARP spending pushed that figure up over $1T, but TARP was a one-time deal, which is expected to be (and has in large part been) paid back. Note that the TARP expenditures have added to Bush’s deficit, but the repayments have been credited to Obama’s revenue, in effect masking the true Obama deficit.
Note that the deficit really belongs to Congress as much if not more than the President.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:55 pm
“If only you realized how absolutely fu*king childish you sound saying something like that’
If that’s true, you must really hate the left.
Mick
March 21st, 2011
1:55 pm
lawow
Reread you 1:20…OK?
jm
March 21st, 2011
1:55 pm
Oh Soco 1:53. Relax. War is hell, and I’m not fond of it. And very, very tired of it.
George W
March 21st, 2011
1:55 pm
Mick…..Obama spent more of the tax payers money in his first year than any other president!
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:56 pm
“Reread you 1:20…OK?”
Don’t have to because I typed it. Now, where in it did I name call?
Bosch
March 21st, 2011
1:56 pm
” Is this a war for oil ?”
I would say for Europe, yes, for us, not so much.
jm
March 21st, 2011
1:57 pm
Bosch 1:56 – true dat
Mick
March 21st, 2011
1:57 pm
george w
Obamacare has not cost anything…..yet
Bosch – good afternoon, yes the doom has got me going around into arguments past…
George W
March 21st, 2011
1:57 pm
Bosch…..did you say the same thing about Iraq? “War for oil”.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:58 pm
Mick
You must have missed reading my comment comparing AmVet to Jared Loughner about a week ago. I posted the NY Times article about how Loughner hated Bush etc. I then pointed out that he reminded me of AmVet which is totally true. Both guys are anti-Bush, big conspiracy types and both think 911 was an inside job.
DebbieDoRight
March 21st, 2011
1:58 pm
Normal: How is it that one Neo-Con can say the government is not responsible for creating jobs and another Neo-Con will blame President Obama for the high unemployment rate in the country? Just askin’
Swede: How true. If anyone really wanted to become informed, all they’d have to do is look up BP Oil, how and why it got started, and their dealings in the Middle East.
George W
March 21st, 2011
1:58 pm
Mick…….Really…..all of the time and legislations it is taking to pass or repeal is not costing us anything? WOW…..I AM AMAZED!!!
Mick
March 21st, 2011
1:58 pm
wow
OK, ok, play your little game….
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:58 pm
“I would say for Europe, yes, for us, not so much.”
So where’s the outrage from the Euro trash?
George W
March 21st, 2011
1:59 pm
What about the fact that Obozo lies about the actual budget…..understated by $2.3 Billion…….
4th Grader
March 21st, 2011
1:59 pm
BMDPD wrote:
Normal, that is why we need to Bomb Bahrain immediately. They are killing civilians there. Thus, they must be bombed! Right? Isn’t that proper logic?
Sorry, BMDPD, not sure if you were being facetious or what, but here goes: Bahrain is a majority Shi’ite country less than 700 nautical miles from Iran, and it has a predominantly Sunni government, with whom the U.S. has vast military contracts, including serving as home to our 12th Fleet.
To be short, there is absolutely nothing that could happen in Bahrain that would interfere with the U.S. government’s relationship with the current regime.
We have a little more flexibility in Yemen as that leader has only recently come under U.S. control, and he could be replaced. When peaceful demonstrations are begun and maintained by mostly secular-based organized groups of young people, as in Egypt, the U.S. State Dept will support them. Libya is the exception to the rule requiring peaceful protests only because Col Gadhafi is on a list of world leaders whose ouster the West would always support given the opportunity.
DebbieDoRight
March 21st, 2011
1:59 pm
Bosch…..did you say the same thing about Iraq? “War for oil”.
I think he said no blood for oil…………and it’s still true……….
WOW
March 21st, 2011
1:59 pm
“OK, ok, play your little game….”
What game, Mick?
Mick
March 21st, 2011
2:00 pm
**all of the time and legislations it is taking to pass or repeal is not costing us anything? WOW**
That cost is a pittance, maybe they should just let it be then…
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:00 pm
“I think he said no blood for oil…………and it’s still true……….”
If the Iraq war was all about oil, we sure got hosed as a nation.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 21st, 2011
2:00 pm
WOW
I don’t hate the left, and I don’t hate the right. What I hate, however, is grown-up assed men/women who talk and argue like fu*king 5th graders instead of just dealing with whatever issues are on the table.
jm
I have a nephew who survived an IED hitting his Humvee. My best friend would be my late best friend if it were not for a dud RPG. I’m tired of people making stupid assed comments such as the one you made. You’re telling me to relax, but I have to greet soldiers returning from both war zones on a daily basis. Most of them are younger than I am, and I’m just in my late 30’s. If you’re tired of it, do something about it other than making stupid bumper-sticker statements.
BMDPD
March 21st, 2011
2:00 pm
Normal, it was to illustrate my point that bombing Libya was not a good thing.
George W
March 21st, 2011
2:01 pm
Mick…..your stupidity is amazing……you have to be trying to be intolerable……
Let it be????? Yeah then it will not cost us anything right?? WOW
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:01 pm
“I don’t hate the left, and I don’t hate the right. What I hate, however, is grown-up assed men/women who talk and argue like fu*king 5th graders instead of just dealing with whatever issues are on the table.”
But aren’t we discussing the issues?
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:02 pm
“Let it be????? Yeah then it will not cost us anything right?? WOW”
What did I do?
4th Grader
March 21st, 2011
2:02 pm
No, Bosch, it’s not a “NATO operation.” Turkey has not yet sanctioned the use of force, and is holding the line at arms embargo, so all of the military action by the coalition forces is being conducted without a NATO mandate.
Bosch
March 21st, 2011
2:02 pm
George W,
“Bosch…..did you say the same thing about Iraq? “War for oil”.”
I did until I learned where we get alot of our oil from, education is a powerful thing and can sometimes bring you out of ignorance.
George W
March 21st, 2011
2:03 pm
WOW…..no I wasnt saying your name….I was actually using the word.
Bosch
March 21st, 2011
2:03 pm
Mick,
Go easy on the Doom.
He’s funny.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:03 pm
“education is a powerful thing and can sometimes bring you out of ignorance.”
ANOTHER left winger throwing out the “education” card. What is it with you left wingers and pretending to have more education than those on the right?
George W
March 21st, 2011
2:04 pm
Bosch……It is good to see you were able to change your mind. Hopefully one day you will do the same thing about Obama.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:04 pm
George W
I was just being goofy.
Mick
March 21st, 2011
2:05 pm
george w
What’s up with the personal attack? Why are you so excitable about nothing, really? Chill dude, the republic will still be here long after you and I…
Kamchak
March 21st, 2011
2:05 pm
If you’re tired of it, do something about it other than making stupid bumper-sticker statements.
Setting the bar unreasonably high, dontcha think?
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:05 pm
“What’s up with the personal attack? ”
LOL
@@
March 21st, 2011
2:05 pm
Kamchak:
Your fan club hangs on your every word, but somehow the point that you didn’t support Obama escapes them.
Hasn’t escaped me. AmVet supports a never has been, ever will be third-party candidate for president.
George W
March 21st, 2011
2:06 pm
Mick….OH I hope so…..however your beliefs that Obama is not spending our money faster than our grandkids grandkids will be able to repay.
Bosch
March 21st, 2011
2:06 pm
4th Grader,
Well it certainly isn’t a US led unilateral operation — to which I have always been vehemenently opposed.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:06 pm
It’s all that botox.
Pelosi hospitalised in Rome after feeling unwell
US Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was hospitalised on Monday after feeling unwell during a visit to Rome, Italian news agencies said.
Pelosi, in Italy to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Italian nation, was scheduled to meet with Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa and Gianfranco Fini, head of the lower house of parliament, when she felt “slightly unwell.”
The Italian-American democrat was forced to cancel her meeting with La Russa and postpone the one with Fini. She is undergoing tests in Rome’s Umberto I hospital, the agencies said.
Paul
March 21st, 2011
2:06 pm
Hey Bosch!
Didn’t miss much this morning. Hardly anyone on the Left would come on line and say if this was good or not, the Right who like it couldn’t bring themselves to give Pres Obama any credit. Interestingly, there are a few on both sides who think it’s not the best thing.
I live the smell of bipartisanship in the morning.
Out for another quick out and back trip tomorrow, but recorder’s set for V. Last week was great. I see TBS has another series in the genre coming out in the fall. Let’s hope this capitalizing for a buck turns out well.
jm
March 21st, 2011
2:06 pm
SoCo 2:00pm – my previous statement was sarcasm (good wars / bad wars). They’re all bad wars. Ergo, relax. Not about wars, about my sarcasm. If you’re sick of wars, call the White House, your congressman, and your senator…..
When I’m sick enough of all this, I’ll do likewise.
Kamchak
March 21st, 2011
2:07 pm
@@
Don’t care.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:07 pm
“AmVet supports a never has been, ever will be third-party candidate for president.”
So he’s a David Duke supporter?
Mick
March 21st, 2011
2:08 pm
george w
It’s possible to disagree without a personal attack. So you don’t like the president? Welcome to my eight years from 01 – 09.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:08 pm
“Out for another quick out and back trip tomorrow, but recorder’s set for V. ”
Hate to break it to you, Paul but V is over until next season. Gotta admit, last weeks season ender was EPIC.
Bosch
March 21st, 2011
2:08 pm
George W.,
In the past ten years I’ve changed my mind about alot of things regarding the conflicts in the Middle East. Situations change, and years go by, and now we’ve had two President’s dealing with the current conflicts, so yes, if you don’t adjust your opinion based on the facts, then that just shows how narrow your scope is.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 21st, 2011
2:09 pm
But aren’t we discussing the issues?
If that’s what discussions have devolved into, our future is even worse than I thought.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:09 pm
“Welcome to my eight years from 01 – 09.”
It won’t be that long, Mick. Obama’s gone after next year.
Left wing management
March 21st, 2011
2:09 pm
jm: “Liberal Wars are good wars, Conservative Wars are bad wars.”
Well, Obama is more conservative than liberal. So does that make this a ‘good’ war?
Normal
March 21st, 2011
2:09 pm
BMDPD
March 21st, 2011
2:00 pm
Then I agree.
George W
March 21st, 2011
2:09 pm
Mick…..so does that make it fine to sit back and take it. This is the worst president our country has seen since Carter.
Paul
March 21st, 2011
2:09 pm
WOW
“Pelosi, in Italy to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Italian nation, was scheduled to meet with Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa and Gianfranco Fini, head of the lower house of parliament, when she felt “slightly unwell”
I have it on good authority she felt weak when she was asked why we attacked a country that never attacked us, that the French were leading and we had no timetable for getting out -
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:09 pm
Southern Comfort
Calm down.
Bosch
March 21st, 2011
2:10 pm
HI ya’ Paul! Twas very busy this morning….it’s tax season ya’ know and this year is gonna be a bear to get them done what with me having to deal with my mom’s stuff. I haven’t slept in a week thinking about it.
TaxPayer
March 21st, 2011
2:10 pm
WOW botoxed his fingers.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:10 pm
“I have it on good authority she felt weak when she was asked why we attacked a country that never attacked us, that the French were leading and we had no timetable for getting out -”
Hmmmmm, I’m leading towards the Botox injection angle.
Paul
March 21st, 2011
2:10 pm
WOW
Last week was IT?!!? Dang, I thought the writers had finally stepped it up into high gear.
Oh well… thanks for the update… I think….
Mick
March 21st, 2011
2:11 pm
**It won’t be that long, Mick. Obama’s gone after next year.**
That’s exactly what I thought about bush in 04, be prepared for your worst nightmare..
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:11 pm
“WOW botoxed his fingers.”
Eeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr CRASH!!!!!!! That’s the sound of Taxpayers insult.
Try again, buddy.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 21st, 2011
2:11 pm
jm
I’m fairly sure they’re sick of hearing from me. I’ve even had the fortune of talking to some face to face. I’ll laugh and joke about many things, but anything relating to the men and women on the ground in the sandbox is off limits, in my honest opinion.
Normal
March 21st, 2011
2:11 pm
It won’t be that long, Mick. Obama’s gone after next year
If that’s true, then Hillery will be the next POTUS…
Paul
March 21st, 2011
2:11 pm
Bosch
“In the past ten years I’ve changed my mind about alot of things ”
If you were a politician we’d be treated to endless posts of “flop flopper.”
Thank heavens you aren’t a politician.
George W
March 21st, 2011
2:12 pm
Mick…..My worst nightmare…..You mean Pelosi is getting elected?
DebbieDoRight
March 21st, 2011
2:12 pm
ANOTHER left winger throwing out the “education” card. What is it with you left wingers and pretending to have more education than those on the right?
Reading Comprehension=WOW’s kryptonite.
WOW
March 21st, 2011
2:12 pm
“Last week was IT?!!? Dang, I thought the writers had finally stepped it up into high gear.”
Yes, last week was the finale and what a finale it was. I was kind of disappointed that they killed off three main characters but at least it wasn’t predictable.
MARK SINGER!
jm
March 21st, 2011
2:12 pm
SoCo – pointing out Liberal hypocrisy is not a “stupid assed” statement. Its just reality.
Wars are awful things, POTUS’s of all stripes end up in them. Obama isn’t even driving the ship anymore, its a bit ridiculous. He got boxed into the surge in Afghanistan, and now the bombing in Libya. I’m not saying they’re wrong, but the guy is officially out of his depth.
George W
March 21st, 2011
2:12 pm
Normal…..you may want to spell her name correctly…..