Why Gaddafi’s Now a Good Guy

Peace in our time…

But as Atrios likes to say, we are ruled by idiots.

I prefer inbred elite:)

Yes we ARE ruled by idiots — unable to enforce among their Versailles media a consistent spelling of the tyrant’s name. Why is that, do you suppose? We managed to make the Peking/Beijing switch in the Western media without a blip, yet spelling the Libyan dictator’s name remains a challenge up until today.

Khaddafi
Khaddaffy
Qaddafi
Qaddafy
Gaddafi
Gaddafy

Really, it is inexcusable. And while the least of our worries about this madman, it somehow goes to the sloppiness of today’s media. They managed to agree that George W Bush was a nice guy to have a beer with, something manifestly untrue on a number of levels; they managed to agree with the Vulcans and cheerlead the War on Saddam; they have almost come around on Usama/Osama.

Yet, on this, nothing. One wonders if there isn’t a conspiracy to fool the rubes into thinking that, in fact, this isn’t a long-time dictator at all but instead a series of similarly-named fellows the USA first liked, then hated, then welcomed back into the Civilized Nations, and — now — is bombing into oblivion with a segment of his citizenry.

Because the USA would never have such a schizophrenic series of policies toward a single madman.

Would we?

Actually, we are ruled by people who know where the oil is, which accounts for the current war in Libya rather than in Ivory Coast, for example. Libya’s proven oil reserves are estimated at 41.5 billion barrels (ninth largest in the world). Libyan officials estimate that over 60% of the country has yet to be surveyed for oil and gas deposits, which could hold an additional 76 billion barrels of oil.

How Did the Bush Administration and the Village Get Duped by Gaddafi?

Didn’t the Bush Administration do the duping?

I’m sure their motives were not unlike the reasons for the Reagan Adminisration to get in bed with Saddam Hussein.

For that matter, their motives were probably not all that different from the reasons the Obama Administration got in bed with Big Business.

No. This is the classic Bush family M.O.: leave a pile of shit on the living room rug for the next folks who live in the building to have to clean up.

There was the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy had to clean that mess up (and, some would argue, it ultimately cost him his life).

Then, while the world wailed in 1992 about the devastating atrocity that was Somalia, Bush I did nothing to inervene to alleviate that mess until after he lost the election, when he intervened and left a mess for Clinton to clean up. That mess cost Les Aspin – possibly the last competent Democrat on Defense – his job (remember – the Bushies were the ones who created the deployment and rules of engagement which led directly to Black Hawk Down and Aspin getting fired, and then enabled the Repugs to pivot off that onto beating up on Clinton).

And there was the whole unfinished business in Iraq thing.

And the creation of the Afghan mujahadeen, then leaving them out there to raise hell from Chechniya to Bosnia to Sudan to Somalia to 9/11.

And then all the atrocities of the Bush/Cheney junta: torture, Gitmo, fucking up Afghanistan by letting bin Laden skip across the mountains (what military man in his right mind steps aside to give some ragtag locals the honor of capturing Public Enemy #1, unless they want Public Enemy #1 to escape?), Iraq…. The list is endless.

I get the feeling Condi and Georgie are giggling uncontrollably about the Libyan dump they took in the living room of Obama’s furrin’ policy, that’s only now stinking up the place. It’s kind of like when a prior inhabitant of your apartment had a male cat that took to spraying. They worked and worked to eradicate it and – when they left – there was no smell. On the first warm day of spring, though, the sun shining in the window brings that stench to the surface and you’re left ot wonder where that smell came from.

This is the Republican way.

Who is in that black and white picture up there?

OT– “AT&T buying T-mobile for $39 million” (RawStory.Com, Mar. 20, 2011). After AT&T playing the anti-competitive networking tiering and bandwidth caps game? Just say “NO” to that!

I find nothing puzzling about this whatsoever.

The short version of U.S. foreign policy is that our friends become our enemies and our enemies become our friends.

Maybe the media should take a vote and decide on one spelling. I know I have used several of them.

Heh. The headline is wrong. It’s $39 billion, not million.

the goal is to deconstruct the master narrative,

not construct it.

Unlike Chinese & Japanese, there is no universally agree upon way to change the arabic alphabet into the latin one.

Nearly every book I’ve read on the Arab world has had a page at the beginning explaining (1) there is no convention, and (2)why the author chose the one he uses.

So it has nothing to do with the press. It is inherent in the languages.

Check out the “TAGS” under the article.

And here we go again, killing more Muslims to save still other Muslims from their cousins. How long would you say we will be in this war, or er limited engagement? What sort of fiend will take over after what’s his name? Ah, but I complain too much. This is the right thing to do, is it not?

As usual, the ‘mission’ has not been defined, just the process.

Rice is not the brightest grain on the stalk.

The process, ah yes, ready, aim, fire, repeat.

I got the impression that the mission is to facilitate regime change. Just my impression.

Some cliche about hammers & nails comes to mind.

Right person for the job?

Don’t you just love it: figure out the mission by impressions. Works for me.

o/t the video stream from Quantico has gotten interesting,
with the Imperial Storm Troopers doing their thing.

Mullen doesn’t seem to agree. Earlier headline was more definitive, that it was NOT about regime change.

But other than U.S. incoherence on the subject, I didn’t notice anything in the U.N. resolution about the goal, other than some vague wording about protecting civilians. No end game.

None of them listened to their mother: lie down with dogs, get up with fleas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain

Well, the international community stepped in just as it started to appear that Gaddafi might turn the tide back in his favor. What else could have motivated it? Frankly, I’m not against getting Gaddafi out, especially when so many there want him out.

you may be getting too picky about this thing, wanting a mission, end game and all. Isn’t it enough that we are doing good works and stopping them from killing each other. After all, that’s our job. Eventually, they will come around to wanting to kill us. Then we can leave.

They can’t say that they’re hoping to facilitate regime change, can they? See my comment @ 27. If they wanted to protect civilians, they could have acted sooner. They also could pay more attention to the shit their allies are doing to their citizens. They’re doing what they doing because it’s Gaddafi and because they see an opportunity to get him out.

Yeah, I thought that was really cheap for T-Mobile. If it was really just xx million, FDL should fund raise and buy the darn thing. FDL needs its own satellite and telephone company, don’t you think? ;-)

Hard to believe it’s worth that much, but then I’m not into finance.

Yeah, picky picky me. I keep thinking that the PTB should have a nodding acquaintance with what they are doing. My standards are just too high.

It’s Neville Chamberlain, presumably in Munich in September, 1938. The same photo is adjacent to the discussion of that fiasco in his Wikipedia entry.

Eh? Look over there! Black Gold! Tejas Tea! Oiiiil! oink oink, who’s that madman in that tent??? Ooopsie…

Let’s get this straight. A brutal Mideast dictator of an oil-rich country traded nonexistent nuclear weapons for normalized relations with the Bush administration, which was desperate to claim some kind of foreign policy “success.” And the media bought it! Saddam should have thought of that.

Hey, eCAHN, from your lips to RawStory’s ears. They’ve fixed their headline on the front page. :-)

Book Salon up with Dan Gillmor’s Mediactive hosted by Barry Eisler

not non existent,…

he bought technology (centrifuges, and the people qualified to build/operate the from a. q. kahn, and was in the nuclear weapons business. There were centrifuge arrays set up in Libya, when it was busted by the CIA, who had turned one of the technical guys into a cia spy

urs tinner

BTW, using that photo is brutally brilliant.

“But as Atrios likes to say, we are ruled by idiots.”

no -

but we are ruled by the oil companies – national security interest you know – ever since the 40′s

Rich and corporate are short term profit folks – and Libya was a short term profit area

Saw that, and it wasn’t from me that they heard.

I’m kinda surprised that Juan Cole seems to favor bombing Libya, though he too is vague about the endgame.

I also heard an ex-U.S. ambassador on book-TV today (the kind who speaks out & quits, apparently) who seemed to favor intervention in Libya, but also Saudi intervention in Bahrain, bc Shia revolution there would be an existential threat to Saudi royal family.

Or perhaps a better characterization of his remarks on Bahrain would be an explanation from the Saudi’s POV rather than an endorsement. He also stated, prolly accurately so, that caving to legit demands before putting down the insurrection just encourages upping of demands. Concedes that putting down insurrection first prolly means legit grievances of Shia will NOT be addressed.

I’ve been waiting for Tmobile to come out with a better phone so I could switch off of ATT, which lied to me about my unlimited data plan. Just flat out lied. I guess att knew that Tmobile would give them legitimate competition, so just eliminated them. Will they be stopped in the name of the consumer? Does rush limbaugh eat shit?

Obama has already stated to the media two weeks ago that Gadhafi must step down. I don’t see how bombing his compound is not about regime change. The US will invent justifications for the war as it progresses, just like they did in Iraq.