Libya Now Needs Boots on the Ground

[ChandlerJr]

Here we go,1st call. I'll put money on it too.


Author:
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations
August 22, 2011
Financial Times

Events in Libya have reached the proverbial beginning of the end, but as is often the case, the truth is that it is closer to the end of the beginning. It is only a matter of time, and quite little time at that, before what is left of Colonel Muammer Gaddafi's era ends. Four decades after it was established, some six months after the world community decided that Col Gaddafi had to go, the regime is crumbling. Defections are multiplying, the favoured son is now in custody, and the rebels are at the gates of the capital Tripoli.
It has been difficult reaching this juncture, but now the truly hard part begins. It is one thing to kill the king and oust the ancient regime, something very different and much more difficult to put something better and lasting in its place. The rebels – in effect a disparate mix (coalition would suggest something more structured than is the case) of individuals and groups, from former regime loyalists to liberal secularists to Islamists – have little in common beyond their opposition to the continued rule of Libya's first family. Now that this goal is about to be realised, their disagreements could well take centre stage.

http://www.cfr.org/libya/libya-now-needs-boots-ground/p25683

[Poll_Blind]

1. I wrote "_______ will greet our liberating troops with parades and flowers" on my dry erase board.

I just erase the last boondoggle's name and put in the new one. Patriotism for the penny-pincher, tip #8.

PB

[sabrina 1]

4. It was inevitable. People simply didn't want to believe it.

The PNAC can check off another Arab nation now. How many more do we have to go? I think Syria was on their list also, airc. But it's been a while since I read it. Libya was definitely there, obviously, because of the oil. We can't have those Arabs controlling their own oil, after. The people of Libya are about to experience Colonialism once again and I think many may regret this whole thing before too long.

[gateley]

2. Sorry, we don't have any boots to spare. nt

[PoliticAverse]

3. "most likely an international force, is likely to be needed for some time to restore and maintain

order"

So has Blackwater/Xe arrived yet ?

[sabrina 1]

5. I think Blackwater has been there all along, as well British and

French 'special forces' according to foreign news reports. We don't get news here, so it would be hard to know. But other internation reports have said that 'Special Forces' were there. I saw a report that many of the 'revellers' waving flags etc. were shipped in from places like Qatar. Made me think of Chalabi and his fake Iraqi revellers. The reports I read said shiploads were delivered and mixed in with the Libyan people.

I feel so sorry for those people. And can't help thinking how in the beginning, when I was supporting this mess, thinking it was real at the time, they demanded that their country would not 'Become another Iraq'. Pepe Escobar among others, predict that is exactly what it is about to become.

[PoliticAverse]

8. From May...

Armed westerners have been filmed on the front line with rebels near Misrata in the first apparent
confirmation that foreign special forces are playing an active role in the Libyan conflict.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/30/western-troops-on-ground-libya

[sabrina 1]

10. Thanks, and Americans keep falling for the same old

tactics. They don't even have to change them, it seems. Poor people, I do not envy them.

[PoliticAverse]

14. Story from today confirming British SAS are on ground and aiding rebels...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8721291/Libya-SAS-leads-hunt-for-Gaddafi.html

[MADem]

6. No. The Libyan people need to do this shit on their own. And they seem to be managing

just fine with a little NATO air cover to prevent wholesale massacre.

If they want advice on setting up a new government, they can ask--and not just us; the French and Brits would be willing to help, I'm sure.

People shouldn't assume they're stupid just because they've lived under a repressive regime. Their challenge will be pulling together a disparate group of people with their own self-interests; the population as a whole is not "invested" in a nationalist ideal, they were simply serfs under a despot with a patina of nationalism flung at them on a regular basis. The real nation-building has to come from within. They've got some smart people on the mujehedin team, hopefully some of those people will step up and do some leading. It's up to them.

[Citizen Worker]

7. The empire marches ever onward.

[bhikkhu]

9. The President says no

...which I'm perfectly happy with. If they can't form a government there in spite of everything, then we certainly can't do it for them.

I'm not even sure we're any good at it ourselves.

[BiggJawn]

11. Good.

So how many C-17's full of boots do we dump on the place?
Wouldn't the Libyans take boots raining from the sky as a terrific insult?

Give 'em all the boots they can handle, so long as there's no American feet in them.

[KoKo]

12. Interesting....saw General Spider Marks hawking this on CNN yesterday...

Obviously he and Haas are following the same playbook. Marks was saying "boots on the ground" to secure the Weapons of Mass Destruction...mustard gas, etc."

Honestly I feel I'm living throught he Iraq Invasion all over again. Only this time the MEME from the PNAC/MIC is that we now have a "better model" in Libya than we did with Iraq.

Same old ...Same old...

[tcaudilllg]

15. Can someone explain to me how an idiot like that becomes a general?

[Chef Eric]

13. Boots on the ground, boots on the ground...

We'll be looking like fools with our boots on the ground.