Things in Libya
One of the most interesting things about the events in Libya is seeing how the NATO intervention there is regarded with reference to President Obama.
That effort was scarcely a day old when Common Dreams, formerly a competent progressive site but now at times indistinguishable from the most rabid Republican sites as I imagine them to be, had a huge headline screaming "OBAMA'S WAR," and the Angry Arab, among others, was equally incensed.
They were a little quick on the trigger, and Obama snatched the Magic Carpet out from under them a few days later by stepping back sharply and leaving Sarkozy of France as the main ramrod, and in the several months since then, Obama's name has rarely been linked with Libya, except by people eager to see the U.S. at the head of everything, including building igloos in the Sahara. France and Britain have been the main NATO actors in the Libyan drama.
I don't know what the general drift at Common Dreams has been lately, but I have noticed that, while his prestige as an expert on the Middle East has been growing by leaps and maybe bounds, as he tells us himself, Angry Arab has rarely had much to say about Libya after his earlier, ill-considered outbursts.
Maybe this is because, among other things, he may have seen the same polls that the equally well-informed and more even-keeled Juan Cole at Informed Comment has been citing, suggesting that a very large majority of Arabs have no use for Gaddafi and they wouldn't at all mind seeing him pushed out of there.
The latest developments on Libya have been that the British are sending in some attack helicopters for the first time, and Obama is adding some Apaches. It looks as if they think that that might be all needed for finally sinking Gaddafi's ship.
But also the Gaddafi side and some in the West have been trying to get the Russians to mediate a peace deal. But why the Russians? It's been a long time since they've been associated with peace. I don't think they have finally come to a meeting of the minds closer to home, with Chechnya, and maybe a couple of other places as well.
That's almost as hard to understand as expecting modern Americans, including Obama, to broker a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
That can't be done with any credibility when you spend all your time lauding the one side while allowing that side to give the other one the very short end of the stick.
But that's a very weird thing to see anyway, depending as it does on the waves of racially-induced nearsightedness currently sweeping across North America between the Atlantic and the Pacific, along with the storms.
That effort was scarcely a day old when Common Dreams, formerly a competent progressive site but now at times indistinguishable from the most rabid Republican sites as I imagine them to be, had a huge headline screaming "OBAMA'S WAR," and the Angry Arab, among others, was equally incensed.
They were a little quick on the trigger, and Obama snatched the Magic Carpet out from under them a few days later by stepping back sharply and leaving Sarkozy of France as the main ramrod, and in the several months since then, Obama's name has rarely been linked with Libya, except by people eager to see the U.S. at the head of everything, including building igloos in the Sahara. France and Britain have been the main NATO actors in the Libyan drama.
I don't know what the general drift at Common Dreams has been lately, but I have noticed that, while his prestige as an expert on the Middle East has been growing by leaps and maybe bounds, as he tells us himself, Angry Arab has rarely had much to say about Libya after his earlier, ill-considered outbursts.
Maybe this is because, among other things, he may have seen the same polls that the equally well-informed and more even-keeled Juan Cole at Informed Comment has been citing, suggesting that a very large majority of Arabs have no use for Gaddafi and they wouldn't at all mind seeing him pushed out of there.
The latest developments on Libya have been that the British are sending in some attack helicopters for the first time, and Obama is adding some Apaches. It looks as if they think that that might be all needed for finally sinking Gaddafi's ship.
But also the Gaddafi side and some in the West have been trying to get the Russians to mediate a peace deal. But why the Russians? It's been a long time since they've been associated with peace. I don't think they have finally come to a meeting of the minds closer to home, with Chechnya, and maybe a couple of other places as well.
That's almost as hard to understand as expecting modern Americans, including Obama, to broker a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
That can't be done with any credibility when you spend all your time lauding the one side while allowing that side to give the other one the very short end of the stick.
But that's a very weird thing to see anyway, depending as it does on the waves of racially-induced nearsightedness currently sweeping across North America between the Atlantic and the Pacific, along with the storms.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 2:14 AM
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