Poll Position: Is Obama getting short shrift for Libya?
The Libyan civil war appears to be reaching its climax, with the rebels having overrun Tripoli and Col. Moammar Gadhafi nowhere to be seen, only heard as he issues desperate calls to arms to extend his 42-year reign. An Associated Press dispatch Thursday began with this gruesome scene:
The streets where rebel fighters bombarded snipers loyal to Moammar Gadhafi were strewn with bullet-ridden corpses from both sides Thursday. Streams of blood ran down the gutters and turned sewers red.
At the Washington Post, columnist E.J. Dionne is concerned that President Obama isn’t getting the credit due him:
It’s remarkable how reluctant Obama’s opponents are to acknowledge that despite all the predictions that his policy of limited engagement could never work, it actually did.
Let it be said upfront that the rout of Gaddafi was engineered not by foreign powers but by a brave rebellion organized inside Libya by its own people.
But that is the point. The United States has no troops in Libya, which means our men and women in uniform do not find themselves at the center of — or responsible for — what will inevitably be a messy and possibly dangerous aftermath. Our forces did not suffer a single casualty. The military action by the West that was crucial to the rebels was a genuine coalition effort led by Britain and France. This was not a made-by-America revolution, and both we and the Middle East are better for that.
Is Obama getting too little credit for his Libya policy?
- Yes, he was right to leave it to others (88 Votes)
- Get back to me when blood stops running down Tripoli's gutters (30 Votes)
- No, a lot of lives might have been saved if we'd led from the front (13 Votes)
Total Voters: 131
Loading ...It seems rather curious to complain that people aren’t rushing to give the president credit for not getting in the way of what others have done — that the rebels may have been successful thanks in largest part to the British and French, and Obama deserves kudos for giving them a chance to prove we’re a not-so-indispensable nation. As it’s been called, “leading from behind.”
Or does Dionne have a point? Perhaps Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham really are wrong to argue that America’s “failure…to employ the full weight of our airpower” meant the fighting dragged on for six months — rather than the “days, not weeks” Obama promised back in March. Perhaps the president was wise to risk failing in the mission in Libya, which was preventing mass civilian killings by the Gadhafi regime, rather than the dangers associated with taking a more robust role in the NATO operation (even if Dionne draws an obviously false choice between doing it Obama’s way and “the way we did things in Iraq”).
That’s this week’s poll position. Answer in the poll and in the comments thread below.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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63 comments Add your comment
MarkV
August 26th, 2011
10:43 am
Obama deserves credit for choosing the best option of US action in Libya. With the Republicans divided between those who had attacked him for doing something in Libya, and those attacking him for not doing more and sooner, his policy has turned out to be correct.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
August 26th, 2011
10:49 am
Loaning the US military to Sarkozy and Merkel: Not exactly a “strategy”.
Next we’ll be asked to give credit to the Idiot Messiah for his strategy for providing outdoor illumination when the sun comes up tomorrow.
Hillbilly D
August 26th, 2011
10:49 am
My opinion is so far, so good. We did help to avert a blood bath but the question is, did we avert it or did we just postpone it? Only time will tell on that. If boots on the ground are required, it’s the Europeans’ back yard, let them lead the way.
Rob Woodall. Get a real job.
August 26th, 2011
10:56 am
Partisan sniping leaves no room for kind words or kudos when the opponent’s policy has proven to work.
Lil Barry and the rest of the ditto-heads were whining about a 3rd war, and further intervention, and the cost, and all that stuff not too long ago. Now it seems that an iron-fisted despot might be overthrown and the US doesn’t get the credit or the blame and the lunatic fringe is complaining that we needed to take a more active role and this would’ve been wrapped up weeks ago.
Classic.
JKL2
August 26th, 2011
11:08 am
carlosgvv- Bin Laden was killed and Kadafi ousted on Obama’s watch. Is that nothing?
Those are both great accomplishments(Kadafi is probably too early to tell due to impending consequences). ROFL in your belief that obama had anything to do with either of those events.
Bush did alot of stupid crap (medicare part D, TARP, etc). Things that you now praise as cornerstones of the obama administation (stimulus, obamacare, etc). But somehow everything that happens is “Bush’s fault” while you have obama penciled in as the greatest president in history.
I can’t argue with your logic as it is void of reality and thus unwinnable.
Jimmy62
August 26th, 2011
11:24 am
I’ll give credit to Obama for Libya. I think he shoulda either stayed out of it, or gone in a lot harder. And he should have called it war, not made-up BS. But in the end it’s working out…. So far. And what comes now is out of his hands, anyway. But yeah, I’ll give him credit. So he’s done one good, seemingly successful thing, which does not outweigh all the other stuff he’s done that was bad. Like further destroy an already teetering economy.
Rafe Hollister
August 26th, 2011
11:27 am
Joel Edge
You said all that needs saying in the opening post.
Tiberius
I agree with your non vote, we never should have gotten involved. We should stand down when one sect of Muslims wants to kill the other. Seems all the wars we have been involved in in the last 30 years involved us protecting one sect of Muslims from another. In Kosove we protected Muslims from the Serbs.
Why is Syria any different. If Barry wants to lead from behind and receive all this adulation for protecting civilians, why does he do nothing with Syria? Hopefully, he does not get us involved.
We need to leave these folks to fight among themselves and bring home our troops.
Rafe Hollister
August 26th, 2011
11:31 am
The main thing about this Libya thing is, it “ain’t over folks”. Heaping praise on Obummer now is like everyone getting excited when Bush landed on the aircraft carrier. We didn’t know then we were just getting started. I fear we will be spending borrowed money on Libya for years.
MrLiberty
August 26th, 2011
12:31 pm
He violated the constitution, started yet another war without congressional approval, participated in an attack on a soverign nation without provocation – likely in violation of several Geneva conventions, put troops on the ground who have been acting as spotters for our bombers, put CIA and other spies on the ground to do the usual provocation and political manipulation activities that make the world hate us so much, and the list goes on.
He should be impeached just as Bush before him should have been impeached. We should not tollerate a war criminal, no matter what the outcome of the conflict.
One need only look at the rebels committment to cancel oil contracts with China, Russia, and others in favor or contracts with the US , Britain, France and others to really see what our support was really about.
When are americans going to finally realize that our military is just the protection arm of the military industrial oil banking complex that runs america?? It has never been about security and it never will.
Joe Mama
August 26th, 2011
2:23 pm
Bill Orvis White — “Thank the Khaddafy-duck downfall to the honorable Pres. Ronald Wilson Reagan.”
Rearrange the letters in “RONALD WILSON REAGAN” and you get “INSANE ANGLO WARLORD.”
Beachdog
August 26th, 2011
2:31 pm
“I guess Obama could have sent Gadhafi a photo album of Michelle. That would have shown leadership.”
Too late, your team stole the show.
Gadhafi had a photo album of….Condi Rice
Chyna
August 26th, 2011
5:17 pm
“Is Obama getting too little credit for his Libya policy?”
If at the end of the day it develops that, as many people suspect, Al-Qaeda had a hand in the revolution we might be thankful that the United States did not get more credit for a Libya policy.
@@
August 27th, 2011
9:11 am
I think it’s safe to say he answered the call and his prize is in transit. Whether it makes it to his desk is a question left for a later date.