Following up on Heather's post about McCain and Lieberman's desire for action against Libya, the neocons are starting to chant for more action. In an amazing show of bravado, a group of forty political analysts, including more than a dozen former officials of former President GW Bush, have posted a letter in the Foreign Policy Initiative website calling for President Obama to bring some "American exceptionalism" in the form of gunboat diplomacy to Libya. It really is amazingly idiotic drivel for such Very Serious People to voice.
Therefore, we recommend the United States, in conjunction with NATO allies, take the following specific actions immediately:
1) The United States should call upon NATO to develop operational plans to urgently:
- Establish a presence in Libyan airspace to prevent the continued use of fighter jets and helicopter gunships against civilians and carry out other missions as required.
- Move naval assets into Libyan waters to aid in evacuation efforts and prepare for possible contingencies. Establish the capability to disable Libyan naval vessels used to attack civilians.
2) Freeze all Libyan government assets in the United States and Europe.
3) Consider temporarily halting importation of Libyan oil to the United States and Europe.
4) Make a clear statement that Col. Qaddafi and other officials who order and participate in massacres of civilians will be held accountable for their crimes under international law.
5) Provide humanitarian aid to the Libyan people as quickly as possible.
Yes, because our military was so successful in combat operations against Iraq and Afghanistan, why not just add another Arab nation to the list of "people we really didn't like anyway, and oh yeah, damn the massive projected spike in oil prices, full speed ahead." You will not be surprised to see that the list of characters is very similar to the original PNAC crowd, the ones who thought in 1998 that overthrowing Iraq through US unilateral force was such a great idea. What jackasses.
In the interest of academic fairness, it would be good to know who the FPI signatories believe we should help in Libya. Should we just drop boxes of automatic rifles and ammunition on the beaches near Benghazi? There are no carriers in the Med, should we divert one or two and station it off the coast? Do we shoot down the defecting Libyan air force pilots as well as those straffing the cities? What if the Libyans see our actions as an attack against them and not just the regime? The rest of the world seems to be capable of getting their own citizens out of the country without the use of force.
It is a good thing, however, for these villains to sign their names so freely. It's important to know who the people are who would so freely loose violence upon the world for the sake of their false ideology, spilling US blood and treasure without any thought of the potential fallout on civilization.
