The France-led (sic) international coalition military intervention “Odyssey Dawn” operation against Gadaffi forces in Libya is necessarily controversial. Liberal Democrats are upset that Obama has side-stepped his constitutional responsibility to consult Congress in matters of war waging (Kucinich is already talking impeachment, yawn). FOXNews pundidiots seek rhetorical payback for past liberal mockery of Bush brush-clearing. Personally, I have been wondering if Western powers are seeking a foothold in North Africa to influence the democratic movements in the region. But Marc Armbinder’s piece in the National Journal raises a possibility I hadn’t considered — namely, the Libya intervention as dress-rehearsal for possible future military action against Iran. Here’s the money-quote everyone seems to be blockquoting:
Though the Libyan situation is quite unique – its military is nowhere near as strong as Iran’s is, for one thing – Obama hopes that a short, surgical, non-US-led campaign with no ground troops will satisfy Americans skeptical about military intervention and will not arouse the suspicions of Arabs and Muslims that the U.S. is attempting to influence indigenously growing democracies.
Intriguing. So if the Iranian government continues to repress the Iranian people’s democracy movement and commits an iconic atrocity, will that be provocation enough to justify military intervention? The Pentagon has been planning an invasion of Iran to take out its nuclear facilities for years now; and remember there was considerable concern the BushAdmin would take action a few years ago. But public opinion was solidly against it, what with two wars already bringing us down. It looks like the ObamAdmin is seeking a way around that.
We’ll see. I’m not saying that it WILL happen. But I’m concerned about where these things lead us, and what motivates my government’s military campaigns beyond the official rhetoric. I have no reason to trust the bastards. Not at all.
Iran? No, the US army doesn’t want to go there. Too much geography in Iran and it’s as hilly as Afghanistant only worse at places. The Navy doesn’t like an Iran invasion either because it’s too far from any carrier. And of course the Air Force is still dreaming about fighter to fighter combat up in the wild blue yonder and Iran won’t oblige with that.
Too much foot dragging by the military, so no Iran.
On the other hand, there’s Somalia.
Bonjour Alain! et Kevin!
I don’t want to read anything challenging right now, but noticed Tony O’s hair (?) in my reader and concluded it’s almost as pretty as Dawns’.