There was an interesting picture in the Lexington Herald-Leader of 03 May of the group in the White House watching the events of the Osama-caper including President Obama, members of the National Security Team and others, among whom were veep Biden, State Secretary Clinton, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mullen and Defense Secretary Gates. Counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan was also in the picture. Later, he would make that famous statement about the president: "one of the most gutsiest calls of any president in recent memory." One can just see the president climbing in a helicopter off to waste Osama in a blaze of glory…air-condioned helicopter, of course.
Brennan is the ultimate apparatchik and on the basis of that statement alone remarked himself as a hopeless sycophant…or at least someone with a terribly short memory. The president ordered up the wasting of one man – Osama. Just a few weeks ago, apparently beyond Brennan’s memory unless it’s quite selective, the president ordered up bombing and missile raids on a virtually defenseless country in the full knowledge (unless he’s a complete idiot) that not one but many Libyans were going to die as the result of his decision. Of course, those raids were not within Brennan’s purview since Libya didn’t/doesn’t pose a terrorism or any other kind of threat to this country. But Brennan would probably affirm that the Libya decision did not compare to "one of the most gutsiest calls of any president in recent memory."
Irony connected to that picture is so palpable it could be cut with a knife. Clinton appeared not in Congress but in the UN Security Council in March to successfully strongarm an approval resolution for establishing a no-fly-zone over Libya. The only reason was that Libyan strongman Qaddafi (like any other Middle East potentate worth his salt) was using planes in killing some of his people, who were attempting to overthrow the government. Obama gave the order (not a “gutsiest” one, of course) on 19 March. By 23 March, a British officer claimed that the Libyan Air Force no longer existed – destroyed on the ground, ergo, the need for the no-fly-zone had been nullified. End of story?
Well…no! It turns out apparently that neither Clinton nor Obama, presumably, actually meant that ploy as primary; rather, the Libyan people just had to be protected from their government, meaning that NATO, strongarmed by the Obama/Clinton team into taking over the killing as Obama withdrew from his “not-gutsiest” decision, would continue the bombing, finally managing on one sortie to hit a house in an entirely residential neighborhood ostensibly to kill Qaddafi, probably a “gutsy” but certainly not “gutsiest” move, of course, but only managed to kill Qaddafi’s son and three grandchildren, all unarmed but dangerous to Libya and the world.
More irony connected to that picture! Defense Secretary Gates and JCC Chairman Mullen had advised the president that his and Clinton’s scheme was not a good one, would cost Libyan lives (possibly those of U.S. GIs, too) and should not be inculcated. They each told of their advice on the various TV shows. Perhaps this irritated the president, who obviously wanted to prove he could tell Middle East dictators when they should get out of Dodge…and make it stick. In any case, he showed his disdain for the advice of actual military men with huge experience by heeding Clinton despite the fact that neither he nor she has any military experience whatever.
During her campaign against Obama in 2008, Clinton described her military experience by describing more than once in detail how she, a civilian, had macho-wise waded through sniper fire in Bosnia in 1996, apparantly forgetting that her visit in Bosnia was well-filmed and documented, showing her being welcomed with flowers by a pretty little girl standing next to both Bosnian and U.S. officials. For a lie of that magnitude, she was made State Secretary. Obama simply ignored his experts but makes no pretense to military expertise. After all, it’s been NATO’s problem ever since he handed it off about ten days and $550 million after he began the carnage.
With respect to Osama, the leader making the “most gutsiest” decision in Brennan’s memory got it right in his plush office in Washington and the SEALs did the dirty work. Since he can’t seem to get Qaddafi the old-fasioned way, i.e., by bombing neighborhoods 24/7 (whether by NATO or U.S. planes), one wonders if perhaps he’ll try the SEALs. Hopefully, they wouldn’t vomit.
And then, there’s Syria, Yemen, Jordan…and many more points east needing for dictators to get theirs. Only the “gutsiest” prevail. How “gutsy” a decision would it take, for instance, to grab Kim Jong Il – far, far east?
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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