Chamblee54

A blog called Unqualified Offerings has a thought provoking story this morning. It is about the apparent victory of rebel forces in Libya. There is a quote from The Economist that puts the net up.
“Libya will have an impact on NATO too. The military alliance that faced down the Red Army might have been expected to crush the clumsy forces of Colonel Qaddafi in days. Instead it took five months of fighting and 17,000 air sorties. An embarrassment for NATO? Not at all. The alliance has had a good war so far (who said “stalemate” not long ago?) and is winning the best kind of victory given the circumstances: one achieved mostly by Libyans themselves. Rebels entered the capital without a single Western soldier visible on the ground (though there were some special forces). NATO air attacks, as well as weapons supplied by friendly Gulf states, aided the rebels. But they alone manned trenches, which will give them added legitimacy in months to come. “
Those weren’t boots on the ground, they were Gucci loafers. The CIA, and the for profit contractors, have been active in Libya for a long time. This “coalition of the billing” represents the USA just as much as the young troops we love to love. And the people they kill are just as dead.
Another item in the Economist quote was the 17k air sorties. It is assumed that most of those were by the United States. It is another safe assumption that with jet fuel, and laser guided smart bombs, that these air sorties cost a pile of money. At a time when the government is broke, and the Washington wise guys are screaming for cuts in spending, the cost of these air sorties needs to be looked at. ( The special forces are also more expensive to operate than uniform troops.)
PG first heard of Unqualified Offerings in the fallout after the Mavi Marmara incident. There were two posts, I Already Shot You, and 60-Year Mortgage . . . Of BLOOD Bwa Ha Ha! Here are a few quotes.
“Israel not only no longer faces any enemies who pose an existential threat, it doesn’t even have enemies who can thwart any strongly held Israeli policy aim. No state is going to go to war to “destroy Israel.” I doubt any state particularly wants to. Certainly no state that might want to can do so. But beyond that, no state is going to go to war on behalf of the Palestinians and the Palestinians lack the power to launch an effective war on their own behalf.”
“For all practical purposes, Israel has its original goal, formal control of all of Mandate Palestine west of the Jordan, within its grasp. Because it’s not completely insensible to global political reality, it can’t just annex the West Bank and be done with it, but it can plainly add any given piece of the West Bank to itself at any time. Roughly ten percent of Israel’s Jewish population lives in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. They’re not moving back. Israel does have to finesse the public-relations of the process, but the public relations are subordinate to the process. And Israel has to deal with the demographic issue: there are all these darn Palestinians. Everyone thinks that eventually Israel has to make nice with them somehow. Israeli actions suggest that Israel thinks it just needs them cowed and poor. And while a visible expulsion would look bad for the cameras, there’s always “encouraging” Palestinians to emigrate over time.”
” Viewed institutionally and leaving moral questions aside, it counts as a triumph of grand strategy. Israel bought off Egypt with Egypt’s own territory. It convinced Jordan to bow out, and plain beat Syria like a rodeo clown. Lebanon could be broken any time and was, and the Lebanese were always falling all over themselves to help. At this point, Israel has also destroyed the ability of the Palestinians to mount any consequential resistance of their own. Just as Hezbollah couldn’t occupy a single Israeli exurb in a trial of a thousand years, no Palestinian organization can stop Israel from planting its flag on any particular spot of the West Bank for so much as a week.”
” This is not Israel “shooting itself in the foot.” This is Israel winning. Be for that or against it, but at least recognize it.”
“On the other side, frequently foreigners make sad faces. I am thinking that Israel counts this among the acceptable costs. You can consider this anything from a travesty of justice to the fulfillment of God’s Divine Plan. But it sure looks like “winning” to me, on its own terms. “
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress .