President Tweets Start of Military Operations in Libya from 10th Tee

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President Tweets Start of Military Operations in Libya from 10th Tee
Missiles Bomb Tripoli as President Bombs Tee Shot

Thursday, March 24, 2011

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Barack Obama addressed the American people this morning via Twitter, informing them of the start of military operations to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya.

“my fellow amercns – tomhwks dropn on libya now. no fly zone in effect. AND i drove >250 off the tee! qdfy betta run n hide! lol,” read the tweet, which was immediately retweeted by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

The tweet was sent from the President’s BlackBerry after rounding the turn following the front nine at Itanhangá Golf Club, widely considered Rio De Janeiro’s top golf course. Meanwhile, First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted that she and daughters Malia and Sasha were being treated to shopping at the exclusive boutiques of the famed Rua Gonçalves Dias.

“stores here r crrrazy expnsv grl!” the First Lady tweeted, “m wants a baiana dress? uh uh. not in my lifetime. that thing is fuggly!”


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Even under NATO, U.S. military will do the bulk of the fighting in Libya...

Europe relies on U.S. power again
Thursday, March 31, 2011 - NATO defenses unbalanced

Even under NATO command, the U.S. military will do the bulk of the fighting in Libya — even as the Obama administration argues that this is Europe’s conflict to lead, not America’s. The number of U.S. warplanes and ships deployed to fight Libya’s regime underscores that NATO’s other 27 members do not have the firepower and high-tech targeting capability to go solo or with little U.S. help.

Even though Europe pressed the White House to enter the war, it provided only a few of the 110 ship-launched cruise missiles fired in the first days and has flown only about 40 percent of all sorties. To some military analysts, the European performance is the result of two decades of cutting defense spending and relying on the United States to do the heavy lifting. “The European countries have made a strategic-level decision to disarm essentially, particularly in their armies and air forces,” said James Russell, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. “Ten years from now, the European armies will cease to be able to perform the kind of policing operations now going on in Afghanistan. Even the British and the French will have a hard time getting forces any sort of distances and sustaining them on the ground.”

Mr. Russell just completed a book, “Innovation, Transformation, and War,” on counterinsurgency in Iraq. He is researching the coalition’s effort in Afghanistan and the contributions, or lack thereof, by Europeans. “NATO is just a headquarters staff at this point,” he said. “Look at what’s going on in Afghanistan. The Europeans are barely able to sustain battalion-level formations, with the exceptions of the British. But even the British, with recent defense cuts, are not going to be able to sustain this for very much longer.” America’s might and European cuts add up to a U.S.-dominated mission in Libya.

“There are certain competencies … that only the Americans have,” said retired Gen. T. Michael Moseley, former Air Force chief of staff. “And since the [1991] Gulf War a lot of our coalition partners have reduced their defense budgets to the extent that whatever capabilities they used to have they don’t necessarily have. And so it falls on primarily the U.S. Air Force to be able to maintain the bulk of the command and control, the [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance], overhead, etc., etc.” Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney said the U.S. has flown 60 percent of all sorties over Libya to date. “The U.S. will have to carry the burden,” he said.

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U.S. Ending Its Air Combat Role in Libya
Friday, April 01, 2011 Washington (AP) - The Pentagon is about to pull its attack planes out of the international air campaign in Libya, hoping NATO partners can take up the slack.

The announcement Thursday drew incredulous reactions from some in Congress who wondered aloud why the Obama administration would bow out of a key element of the strategy for protecting Libyan civilians and crippling Moammar Gadhafi's army. "Odd," "troubling" and "unnerving" were among critical comments by senators pressing for an explanation of the announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that American combat missions will end Saturday. "Your timing is exquisite," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said sarcastically, alluding to Gadhafi's military advances this week.

Gates and Mullen, in back-to-back appearances before the House and Senate armed services committees, also forcefully argued against putting the U.S. in the role of arming or training Libyan rebel forces, while suggesting it might be a job for Arab or other countries. The White House has said repeatedly that it has not ruled out arming the rebels, who have retreated pell-mell this week under the pressure of a renewed eastern offensive by Gadhafi's better-armed and better-trained ground troops. "My view would be, if there is going to be that kind of assistance to the opposition, there are plenty of sources for it other than the United States," Gates said.

The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said he saw no contradiction between Gates' remarks and President Barack Obama's statement that "he has not ruled it in or out." As yet, none of Obama's top advisers have publicly advocated a significant expansion of the U.S. role aiding the opposition. Gates and Mullen were early skeptics of getting involved militarily in Libya, and Gates made clear Thursday that he still worries about the possibility of getting drawn into an open-ended and costly commitment. That explains in part his view that if the rebels are to receive foreign arms, that task -- and the training that would necessarily go with it -- should not be done by Americans.

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