What is Obama's end game in Libya?

[JimH52]

What is Obama's endgame in Libya? - CNN.com

Gergen is one of the most even handed, rational Republicans I have ever read. The GOP brass could learn from this guy. The tea party could learn from his measured words.

 

[Mr. H.]

As I understand it, control over this military mission will soon be handed off to other nations.
I don't think it was Obama's "game" to begin with.

 

[California Girl]

It's not our action, so why would he have an end game?

 

[Mad Scientist]

It's not our action, so why would he have an end game?

Ah, good point! We should be asking what the UN's end game is.

 

[Two Thumbs]

From the link

• Originally, the president kept saying we want Gadhafi out -- but now that we are using force, he says we only want to stop him from killing more civilians. When did rebels become "civilians"? Is this mission creep in reverse? And how tough would we be if, as seemed possible today, the Arab League begins to retreat from supporting force? The Arabs pushed for it, now that they have it, they are out. This is why we have no business dealing with this filth. They got us to do the dirty work for them and they turn a profit.

The strategy is not to keep Gadd from killing civilians, if it truly was we would have invaded.

what a waste

 

[Two Thumbs]

It's not our action, so why would he have an end game?

Ah, good point! We should be asking what the UN's end game is.

Better question.

when did the UN get the power to declare the US goes to war?

 

[California Girl]

It's not our action, so why would he have an end game?

Ah, good point! We should be asking what the UN's end game is.

Better question.

when did the UN get the power to declare the US goes to war?

There is no 'war'.

 

[Two Thumbs]

Ah, good point! We should be asking what the UN's end game is.

Better question.

when did the UN get the power to declare the US goes to war?

There is no 'war'.

Our military has been sent.
The weapons of war have been used.
We have destroyed places.
We have killed people.

Please excuse me if I fail to see any difference, beyond the fact that Congress has not declared war.

 

[High_Gravity]

The endgame is the oil contracts, if Libya had no oil no one would care about it.

 

[California Girl]

Better question.

when did the UN get the power to declare the US goes to war?

There is no 'war'.

Our military has been sent.
The weapons of war have been used.
We have destroyed places.
We have killed people.

Please excuse me if I fail to see any difference, beyond the fact that Congress has not declared war.

It's not a 'war', it's a military action. We have only killed military personnel. We have only destroyed military targets.

It's a fine line, but a line nontheless, it's not a 'war'.

 

[kaz]

The endgame is the oil contracts, if Libya had no oil no one would care about it.

He's just reacting, I doubt he's thinking this. He doesn't care what the effect of anything else he does is on the economy, why start now? And anyway, so far Obama hasn't had an "end game" for anything he's done, again, why would we believe he suddenly does?

 

[California Girl]

From the link

• Originally, the president kept saying we want Gadhafi out -- but now that we are using force, he says we only want to stop him from killing more civilians. When did rebels become "civilians"? Is this mission creep in reverse? And how tough would we be if, as seemed possible today, the Arab League begins to retreat from supporting force? The Arabs pushed for it, now that they have it, they are out. This is why we have no business dealing with this filth. They got us to do the dirty work for them and they turn a profit.

The strategy is not to keep Gadd from killing civilians, if it truly was we would have invaded.

what a waste

The Arabs are not 'out', they're in. Most of 'em are financing, one (Qatar) is sending aircraft. That's not 'out', that's most definitely 'in'. They're also doing some PR by whining about the bombing... just in case the bombing upsets their citizens.

And.... no... we did not need to invade. We needed to stop him from bombing his own people. We can do that from the air... better for Libya and better for us. I suggest that, unless you have some experience of actually planning military tactics, you might want to say less.... save you looking dumb.

 

[Sallow]

There is no 'war'.

Our military has been sent.
The weapons of war have been used.
We have destroyed places.
We have killed people.

Please excuse me if I fail to see any difference, beyond the fact that Congress has not declared war.

It's not a 'war', it's a military action. We have only killed military personnel. We have only destroyed military targets.

It's a fine line, but a line nontheless, it's not a 'war'.

Oh it's a war. And one that probably should have happened after Lockerbie.

I hope this gives the rebels enough cover the off Qaddafi. He's been deserving a dirt nap for decades.

 

[High_Gravity]

The endgame is the oil contracts, if Libya had no oil no one would care about it.

He's just reacting, I doubt he's thinking this. He doesn't care what the effect of anything else he does is on the economy, why start now? And anyway, so far Obama hasn't had an "end game" for anything he's done, again, why would we believe he suddenly does?

The only reason anyone cares about what goes on in Libya is because all these countries the US, Britain, France etc all had oil contracts in Libya, now that they openly called on Ghaddafi to step down from power they will lose those contracts if Ghaddafi regains control of his country, he openly said the only group allowed back in for the contracts would be Germany since they opposed the no fly zone. Believe me Ghaddafi is taking names, he is not stupid and if he regains control,he will tell the US to go fuck themselves and the oil contracts will go to Russia, China and the Germans.

 

[VaYank5150]

Better question.

when did the UN get the power to declare the US goes to war?

There is no 'war'.

Our military has been sent.
The weapons of war have been used.
We have destroyed places.
We have killed people.

Please excuse me if I fail to see any difference, beyond the fact that Congress has not declared war.

Who is "we"? What weapons did "we" send? We can't afford to throw away perfectly good weapons on someone else's civil war?

 

[High_Gravity]

Our military has been sent.
The weapons of war have been used.
We have destroyed places.
We have killed people.

Please excuse me if I fail to see any difference, beyond the fact that Congress has not declared war.

It's not a 'war', it's a military action. We have only killed military personnel. We have only destroyed military targets.

It's a fine line, but a line nontheless, it's not a 'war'.

Oh it's a war. And one that probably should have happened after Lockerbie.

I hope this gives the rebels enough cover the off Qaddafi. He's been deserving a dirt nap for decades.

I can agree with you in theory, Ghaddafi has American blood on his hands and should have been removed long ago, but obviously others in our government feel different, we made deals with the Ghaddafis to stop their WMD program, they helped us fight Al Qaeda in the region, we took them off the terror list and re-established diplomatic relations.

 

[California Girl]

The endgame is the oil contracts, if Libya had no oil no one would care about it.

He's just reacting, I doubt he's thinking this. He doesn't care what the effect of anything else he does is on the economy, why start now? And anyway, so far Obama hasn't had an "end game" for anything he's done, again, why would we believe he suddenly does?

The only reason anyone cares about what goes on in Libya is because all these countries the US, Britain, France etc all had oil contracts in Libya, now that they openly called on Ghaddafi to step down from power they will lose those contracts if Ghaddafi regains control of his country, he openly said the only group allowed back in for the contracts would be Germany since they opposed the no fly zone. Believe me Ghaddafi is taking names, he is not stupid and if he regains control,he will tell the US to go fuck themselves and the oil contracts will go to Russia, China and the Germans.

I'm sure that the Brit's are not unhappy at the prospect of bombing the shit out of Gaddafi... over the Lockerbie bomber fiasco... a little bit of pay back for the Brits. But... generally... it's not about oil... it's about giving the rebels a level playing field on which to fight for democracy.

 

[High_Gravity]

He's just reacting, I doubt he's thinking this. He doesn't care what the effect of anything else he does is on the economy, why start now? And anyway, so far Obama hasn't had an "end game" for anything he's done, again, why would we believe he suddenly does?

The only reason anyone cares about what goes on in Libya is because all these countries the US, Britain, France etc all had oil contracts in Libya, now that they openly called on Ghaddafi to step down from power they will lose those contracts if Ghaddafi regains control of his country, he openly said the only group allowed back in for the contracts would be Germany since they opposed the no fly zone. Believe me Ghaddafi is taking names, he is not stupid and if he regains control,he will tell the US to go fuck themselves and the oil contracts will go to Russia, China and the Germans.

I'm sure that the Brit's are not unhappy at the prospect of bombing the shit out of Gaddafi... over the Lockerbie bomber fiasco... a little bit of pay back for the Brits. But... generally... it's not about oil... it's about giving the rebels a level playing field on which to fight for democracy.

CG do you honestly think if these rebels were in the Congo or Zimbabwe instead of Libya, that we would be using our Military to help them?

 

[Two Thumbs]

The endgame is the oil contracts, if Libya had no oil no one would care about it.

I don't think that's true. Lybia supplies 2% of the worlds oil and most of that goes to EU.

So that would explain the EU wanting to go in.
But not the other Arabs. Demand for thier oil will increase.

And if we are to kill off every dictator that kills his own people, we need to get to North Korea now.

 

[kaz]

The endgame is the oil contracts, if Libya had no oil no one would care about it.

He's just reacting, I doubt he's thinking this. He doesn't care what the effect of anything else he does is on the economy, why start now? And anyway, so far Obama hasn't had an "end game" for anything he's done, again, why would we believe he suddenly does?

The only reason anyone cares about what goes on in Libya is because all these countries the US, Britain, France etc all had oil contracts in Libya, now that they openly called on Ghaddafi to step down from power they will lose those contracts if Ghaddafi regains control of his country, he openly said the only group allowed back in for the contracts would be Germany since they opposed the no fly zone. Believe me Ghaddafi is taking names, he is not stupid and if he regains control,he will tell the US to go fuck themselves and the oil contracts will go to Russia, China and the Germans.

Oh, I think you're reading the situation right. I was just referring to Obama himself. So far in his life he only reacts, he doesn't lead and can't make a decision. If he got what you're saying, agreed with it and actually acted on it, it would be unprecedented for him.