Most of the Rightwing are confused over Libya. They don’t know how to respond to the way the President has responded. Let’s be honest: Gaddafi‘s not exactly your Hosni Mubarak. I mean, he doesn’t walk around in a tailored suit kitted out by Brooks Brothers. So whilst it’s funny to watch the Right contort themselves into a position where it seems as though they’re almost forced to side with Gaddafi in this mess, they haven’t exactly bought into another version of the big lie propaganda being subtly promoted by a less than salubrious media.
The latest magnificent obsession we’re being asked to gobble to the point of nausea is the fact that the President has signed a secret order authorising C I A operatives to go to Libya and liaise with the rebel forces.
With that announcement – let’s call it a leak, because that’s what it was – all the Firebaggers are crawling from the woodwork, all the Kucinichivites and Moorebots are wagging fingers and twittering remorselessly about something they had realised from the getgo, but which we lesser mortals, uncomprehendingly refuse to believe.
There! TOLD YA! Obama lied. No ground troops in Libya? Ha! Tell me another one. NOW tell me he’s not like Bush.
Well, he’s not. Sorry to disappoint you, but the C I A is not “troops on the ground,” and that secret order, the existence of which has just been released, was probably signed and blown into live several weeks ago, when this whole kerfuffle started, or shortly thereafter.
Tell you another thing too … They’re not alone, because MI5, the British Secret Service and their version of the C I A, has been right along beside them all the time.
Use your common sense, Firebaggers, Kucinichivites and Moorebots … how the hell else do you think Britain, France and the US got ground information about where Gaddafi’s army and military materiel was located? How do you think they knew where heavily concentrated civilian areas were in order to avoid collateral damage in the bombing raids? There’ve been intelligence operatives in that country for quite sometime.
In fact, they’re everywhere and in every country. In most of the Western countries, our allies, there’s a C I A operative planted in every U S embassy – a cultural or political attache or one of their respective staff. In countries which aren’t so friendly, their cover is deeper. And the same game is played with us on our home soil. How many years did that bevy of Russian spies live amongst the people in suburban New Jersey and Washington DC before their covers were blown?
Spies are just what they are: spies. They blend in with the scenery until the become part and parcel of the fixtures and fittings of a country. If they’re very good, they never get caught or exposed until well past their useful dates. If they are discovered, they know enough to face the consequences. It’s part of their job. They don’t swan around in Aston Martins, drinking martinis which are shaken and not stirred like 007, and they don’t disappear down telephone booths or use shoe phones like Maxwell Smart.
They’re there for a reason, and they’re here for a reason too, so let’s not panic and call the President a liar and stamp your feet and act like the emotional adolescents you are. One of the main reasons they’re in and about Libya is not only to find out the extent of Gaddafi’s strength or weakness, but also to find out exactly who these insurgents are whom we’re helping at the moment. After all, it pays to know if the enemy of your enemy is really your friend of just another asshole-in-training.
Who knows who leaked information about their existence or why it was leaked, but maybe it was done as a test. Maybe it was done for the President’s amusement, so he could watch the 24/7 news boys and girls push the fear and resentment button and watch the children perform their dance of indignance.
I guess after all the crap with which he has to deal, he needs a laugh, and he also needs to gauge the intellectual calibre of the country he governs.
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On the leak, Marion. I suspect it served a couple purposes domestically, but that one of the uses of the leak was also to broadcast to Gaddafi himself to spook him. To make him even more paranoid about those he surrounds himself with, especially given the high profile defections he’s faced. What if one of them, instead of defecting, were just to put a slug in his head? Might make retiring to Jedda, Kampala or Caracas sound a lot better of an alternative, no? Of course, that’s considering he’s not inclined to go down à la Hitler’s bunker.
I’m not sure that Qaddafi could be much more paranoid without exploding.
The leak was put out by someone in govt who does not like the policy and wants to see it wrapped up and reversed.
Which is the explanation of 99.98% of all leaks out of DC.
I expect that the CIA would be in Libya. The CIA is a pretty inexpensive way to take on an adversary.
It appears that Obama was, heaven forfend, telling the truth when he wanted some other country to do the flying and bombing.
As for the right: The GOP is an organized fatuity. Their main goal is to get elected and stay there. When there? No clue, save one of the oldest rules in politics: reward your friends and punish your enemies.
They are narcissistic nihilists.
I would sue Obama myself if he did not want to get more intel on the rebels and Qaddafi’s forces for that matter. Anyone who is against the UN mission in Libya is going to be against sending intel ops. I’m sure there is gonna have to be special ops in the region like painting military targets or even extraditing other Qaddafi loyalists who want to defect. It’s not the same thing as sending forces en mass but the detractors will tell you it is.
I was surprised to see blow-hard Ed say we should go and arm rebels directly. Frankly I think that is already happening through Arab countries.
It’s just ironic that there was a big ho hum from people who said nothing when like a month ago Obama signed the same order for Yemen.
KQ, don’t you think that the CIA/MI-5 have been there for 40-50 years? Perhaps the news should be that we sent in more spooks not that we sent them in now? And you are right, not sending any intel people in would be pure negligence. I’s like some have said here earlier, DUH! Gotta love our 24/7 lazy cable”news” stations, eh? Tomorrow news today: “Obama’s socks and shoes didn’t math his belt! Is he color blind?”
“Is he color blind?” Bito, seems like their problem is that they are not, along with the other 20 odd percent and the huge song and dance they perform everytime the Preisident scratches his nose or heaven forbid bows to anyone. Remember the disgraceful fuss when he visited Japan for the first time. Everyone bows in Japan, it’s a bloody custom, I even find myself bowing on the phone. Japanese people must bow up to 100 times a day, very few shake hands like we do. Nobody would understand a peck on the cheek and a hug except someone’s mother-in- law, and yet their ugly complaints went on for weeks.
The GOP thinks that diplomacy is a funny thing that you wear on your head, and your media stands ready to wipe their behinds for them whenever they dump their bs.
How on earth do they explain how every other country in the world gathers intelligence, it certainly isn’t by propping up a barstool in DC.
I don’t get the craziness from the Right over this either. The CIA is everywhere at all times. It would be surprising if they WEREN’T there. Then I would think something horrible was about to happen.
It would be NEGLIGENT if they WEREN’T there, and then I’D be pissed off.
When I saw those blaring headlines last night about the CIA my immediate thought was “duh.” I think if the CIA WEREN”T there I would be more concerned.
Obama might very well have released this just to watch the “silly shit storm” that so predictably, and quickly followed.
This is definitely the biggest “Duh!” non-story I’ve seen in ages.
No doubt escribacat…no doubt.
The righties are so consternated because they really have nothing to fault Obama for. Yes, they use the old, “dithering,” argument, then some of them say he acted too quickly. Obama is always damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. Remember, these are the same fanatics who tried to have us believe that his choice of mustard for his burgers was, “un-American.”