I have been saying for weeks that the Obama administration should resist pressure to get directly involved in Colonel Gaddafi’s ouster from power in Libya. For a long time it seemed like the State Department wanted us to get involved and the Pentagon did not. This is a reversal of the normal approach to world affairs of those two departments, but it might reflect the differences between their secretaries. In any case, Hillary Clinton has finally come out against acting unilaterally:
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports from Cairo that there is “no U.S. support” from the State Department for a no-fly zone over Libya, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton instead saying that the proposal must go to the United Nations, where it is expected to face opposition from Russia and China.
Meeting with Clinton last night in Paris, Libyan rebels asked the Secretary to launch airstrikes against three airfields, to offer military aid, and to implement a no fly-zone, Mitchell reports.
But the United States is not going to meet those demands, according to an off-camera read out after that meeting — the highest-level contact to date between the administration and the Libyan rebels.
Make no mistake. The president will be unfairly attacked for making this decision, as well as for not going to war with Iran after their sham elections in 2009 and subsequent crackdown.
People who loath war and dislike American interventionism have a responsibility to have the president’s back on this. For once, we didn’t intervene and we didn’t choose war. We didn’t add Libya to our list of responsibilities. At least, not yet.
If Gaddafi survives, be ready to rebut arguments that Obama was indecisive and disengaged.