Gaddafi Goes -2

On Thursday, when the news of the death of Gaddifi came out, I wondered on this blog how long it would take for the president to start taking credit for this. The answer is already in. Yesterday and today, the Obama media operation has been pumping out story after story about Obama's great success in Libya. In most places they couple this with his great triumph in ending the war in Iraq. In short, it is an avalanche of BS.

First, let's look at Iraq. The War in Iraq was essentially over before Obama took office. Al Qaeda in Iraq had been crushed. The Shiite militias were totally inactive. There were sporadic terror incidents but these were few and far between. President Bush had already announced that many American troops were leaving Iraq. The reality is that Obama simply completed the American withdrawal. There is an open question as to the wisdom of that total withdrawal. The big fear is that the new Iraq will somehow ally itself with Iran, a move that will be greatly harmful to peace in the region. Nevertheless, the point here is that the kudos for the end of the war do not belong to Obama.

Second, let's look at Libya. The Washington Post, Reuters, and a host of other liberal media are touting Gaddafi's death as a vindication for Obama's lead from behind strategy. In truth, this is an abomination. Had Obama acted in the first days of the Libyan uprising when the rebels/protesters were triumphant across nearly all of Libya, a well placed push from the USA would probably have forced Gaddafi from the scene in short order. Instead, Obama dithered and took over a month to act. During that time, Gaddafi and his forces recovered from the initial shock of the uprising, reorganized and started the fight that led to many thousands of Libyan deaths. None of these hymns of Obama praise in the media ever mention all of the Libyans who Obama had die needlessly. None of these great liberal writers ever concern themselves with something as mundane as dead Arabs when they can gin up something favorable to Fearless Leader Obama. The truth, however, remains. The result in Libya is a good one insofar as it gets rid of Gaddafi, a nut job if there ever was one. The future is unclear since we still do not know who will be in control in Libya next week and next year. The cost of American policy in Libya has been substantial, paid for with the lives of Libyans. It does not sound like an American triumph to me.