August 21, 2011

"Sen. John McCain predicted that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi would quickly lose his grip on power..."

"... amid reports rebel fighters had entered the capital Tripoli. Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, McCain said it was a ‘matter of hours if not days’ until Gadhafi’s downfall.  The conflict was 'nearing the end,' he predicted."

I keep reading stories like this, but... how many "rebels" are there? This picture for the front-page article in the NYT today of "rebels" shows a few guys in T-shirts. One has a gun, another is talking on a cell phone, and another is spray painting some graffiti. A "rebel leader" is quoted as saying "If you can call any mobile number in Tripoli, you will hear in the background the beautiful sound of the bullets of freedom."

This all sounds as vague and wishful as Qaddafi's "The rebels are fleeing like rats, to the mountains."

42 comments:

madAsHell said...

Days not weeks....wasn't that what Obama (the rational choice) promised us in March, 2011?

Carol_Herman said...

Libya. All wide on coastline. But only 10 miles deep. Before you hit sand. And, can go no further.

It's also the Mideast. And, when things rip up ... different war lords with tribes ... come out of the woodwork.

Heck, I remember stories from China. Way back when General Chennault wa bringing in supplies that got stolen by different warlords.

As if you didn't know that that was how MAO got a grip.

Arab Spring? McCain's nuts. If he's setting up a table where he thinks he can hang out goodies to newcomers ... His understanding of the Mideast shows that he's clueless.

Besides, the french are gonna roll in, first.

Sarkozy thinks he can pick the plums off the tree. All the Americans will do will be to smell the gas coming out of sarkozy's ass.

Of course, just to make things more exciting you've got the EURO. And, the german's who don't want to keep paying for it.

Your choice on who loses ground, first.

McCain's a putz. And, he's not president because he didn't win!

What's next for the GOP? Making McCain's "grades" look like the high bar?

SteveR said...
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SteveR said...

The end of the Solar System is just a matter of time.

edutcher said...

We're also still doing most of the heavy lifting, too, and, since it's a high-tech war from our side (air attacks), it's rather expensive.

Hey, there's something for SuperCongress to cut.

Carol_Herman said...

Libya. All wide on coastline. But only 10 miles deep. Before you hit sand. And, can go no further.

You never heard of the Long Range Desert Group.

Besides, the french are gonna roll in, first.

You mean the people who had a war with Greenpeace and almost lost?

PS Isn't it about time to trot out the I word? Little Zero is circumventing Congress, as well as the appellate courts (I count 2 orders to lift the drilling moratorium) and we can all imagine the screams if Dubya had done anything like this.

WV "arepo" What happens if you can't make your car payments.

m stone said...

Easy to identify the rebels. They're the ones with cell phones, T-shirts, and spray-paint cans.

Cedarford said...

Join McCain is one of the last unreconstructed Neocons...that sees 8-12 "Munichs" at present - that must be stopped with America's limitless resources given to The Heroes and "my Friends" in the native opposition forces. To stop the "Munich", save the situation, nation-build and bring democracy for the eternal pro-American gratitude of the local natives.

McCain would say the cost would be high, but no price is too high to stop Giving Freedom!, and besides, he Personally Found 23 million in earmark waste.

McCain's "world" ended in 1990-91. He is just too stupid to see it. Republican primary voters were too stupid to see how bad he would have been as President..like Kerry, Dukakis, McGovern...an "Own Goal" on the nominating Party.

Kirby Olson said...

Gaddafi's #2 Jalloud is reported to have gone to Europe (defection). Of course he went to France, and probably took a part of the treasury with him, so he could live on former dictators' row along the Riviera with the Amins and the Duvaliers and God knows who else.

Kirby Olson said...

Gaddafi can always defect to New Jersey. He can befriend the Sopranos. He'll fit right in with all the other ex-pats from the third world in the Paterson area. Maybe he can run guns for local gangs.

chickelit said...

Cedarford and Carol_Herman: two birds of feather whose last dying words together will be:

Cedarford: McCain sucked

Carol Herman: Yes, he did, now kiss me you old fool.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I don't know CL. Congress is on vacation yet McCain is always around to say the same old same old. Gotta wonder who is taking care of Cindy.

chickelit said...

@AJ: What I said may sound ad hominem towards CH and C4. All I'm saying is that whenever the name McCain comes up, those two can be reliably predicted to trot out a McCain ad hom. I guess it helps assuage their Obama vote but it's just so predictable. If those two can get away with predictability, so should I.

Nobody's encouraging anyone to strive higher here.

Anonymous said...

"This all sounds as vague and wishful as Qaddafi's "The rebels are fleeing like rats, to the mountains.""

Who cares what it sounds like?

The question is what is happening on the ground.

If reports can be believed, Qaddafi's people are fleeing and the rebels are closing in on Tripoli.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Strive higher? I sure don't. Heh.

Paul said...

Remember Lebanon? Well Libya will become a second Lebanon.

Why?

Al Quad-ea is there, the 'rebels' are dozens of factions, there have been assassination of rebel leaders BY rebel leaders, OIL, MONEY, GREED, and a power vacuum.

Now Gadhafi had renounced WMD, gave up his nuke research, gave up terrorism, and basicly just minded his own fiefdom. But noooooo, Obama just had to attack him and grounds that, well he could attack most Arab countries.

So we are causing a power vacuum in a region we should not AND we will not fill it as we have done in Iraq.

Expect a long drawn out BLOODY civil war, loss of oil imports, and another Somalia or Lebanon.

Some more hope and change for you folks.

Cedarford said...

CL - I think the reaction is that whenever McCain is trotted out as some sort of Senior Sage and Wise Man by the media on any global issue...the proper reaction is to comment "No, he is not".

He tosses out about as much ill-informed bullshit as Obama does. We got the media doing the same act recasting Gore and Kerry as August Statesmen right after the public saw how dim and incoherent they were too - and shoving their baying down our throats after they were rejected. We-just-want-those-guys-to-go------away!

Kerry to sailboard on his wifes yacht, Gore to take some non-carbon using sailboat then bicycles to Thai massage parlors, McCain to retire and babble hero gramps stories to his grandkids.

Cedarford said...

Also - the fact that a Gore, McCain or Kerry were captivated by a certain person they annointed as VP does not make said VPs automatic President-worthies.

John henry said...

Sure Gaddaffy's leaving is still days away. Didn't Obie promise us that:

"Gaddaffy has to go and it will be a matter of days not weeks."

That was back on March 21.

He is still there.

It is bad enough that Obama got us into a war with Libya. But to get us into a war with a 3rd rate nation like Libya and not be able to win it? Wow! just Wow!

Technically it has been a matter of days. about 110 of them.

How many days does McCain envision? Another couple hundred?

John Henry

G Joubert said...

Castro was supposed to be gone any minute too. Sometimes it's like waiting for Godot to leave.

Gary Rosen said...

More incoherent bullshit from the incoherent bullshitter C-fudd. You know, Fudd, you are always fulminating about how the Zionist neocon Joooooos get us into wars even though some of your best friends are kikes, I mean yids, I mean Jooooos. So which war was it?

Was it the first Gulf War started by Bush I, notably cool towards Israel with his SoS Jim fuck-the-Jews Baker, when they put half a million troops into that bastion of Zionism Saudi Arabia to protect their buds' oil interests?

Was it the second Iraq war when Bush II decided to take out the guy who put out a contract on his father?

Or was it the Afghanistan war, because after all nobody in the US wanted to go after the perpetrators of 9/11 except for a tiny cabal of neocons?

Anonymous said...

*gnash gnash gnash, whine whine whine, grouse grouse grouse, Obama sux whiiiiiiiiiiine Libyan rebels look scrappy whiiiine gnash*

Meanwhile in Tripoli, the triumphant young rebels are claiming their freedom and waving their real flag after half a century of oppression.

David said...

Gad-Daffy is toast. This time he is going to have to flee or die.

This will give a boost to Obama, who will take all the credit. He will deserve a very small part of it.

Eventually we will learn what the consequences of Gad-Daffy's demise are. Whoever take over are not going to feel like they got much American help. Expect a lot of Chinese in Libya over the next few years.

Anonymous said...

HILARIOUS that five minutes after Anne pontificates on whether the Libyan rebels exist (cynicism born of the fact that Obama's involved) they liberate Tripoli. No acknowledgement that the non-existent rebels just won the war. I mean, how could events conspire to make a post seem more tin-eared and out of touch with reality?

PaulV said...

Endless war may be Obama best option in 2012.

Anonymous said...

The Libyan Government is saying 1,300 dead, which if anywhere near true, suggests larger number are involved.

Anonymous said...

The scene of jubilation and liberation that the Bush administration tried to manufacture in Fidros square the day they pulled the saddam statue down is ACTUALLY happening now, in Tripoli.

But the conservatives and their freedomtalk are awfully quiet. Because it was Obama in charge, and there are no American troops doing the liberating. Damn fools.

John henry said...

I've been busy putting up storm windows all day (Hurricane Irene is expected momentarily) and I missed the liberation of Tripoli. I will be skeptical for a bit to see if it is hype or real.

I did click to Drudge and he has a wonderful picture of Gaddaffi.

The is a blurry orange light behind him and it looks like his head is on fire.

Direct link to the pic here

http://bit.ly/pu0vw1

Appropos of this, a question about bit.ly

I am sure someone is collecting money for their use of the Libyan domain. Who?

John Henry

Gary Rosen said...

"The scene of jubilation and liberation that the Bush administration tried to manufacture in Fidros square the day they pulled the saddam statue down is ACTUALLY happening now, in Tripoli."

Are you claiming that we didn't actually topple Saddam? Or that he didn't actually kill many more times the number of people as Khadafy ever did (not to justify the Libyan fruitcake)?

sorepaw said...
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Anonymous said...

STFU sorepaw. Why don't you level some of your criticism at the sour-ass misinformed poseurs who run this blog and who comment on it. Who are, time after time, demonstrably full of shit. Did I say one thing about blaming the USA? Hell no. I'm proud to be American. I'm proud that my president did the right thing and supported REAL freedom fighters even though it was unpopular. I'm proud to be part of building a new world with my ARAB MUSLIM brothers in Libya, a world of tolerance not bigotry.

Who is not proud to be American? Who shits on America now that a liberal is president? Look in the mirror.

sorepaw said...
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sorepaw said...
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hoop said...

If the rebels do remove Gadhafi (aside: is that how we spell it this year?) from power, I'm most interested in what power structure takes hold. Qaddafi (how it was when I grew up) wasn't the greatest, but he was nominally secular and wasn't too keen on going hardline Sharia or anything like that. I haven't seen much analysis as to what kind of factions will likely coalesce to form the new government, but I do fear that, like Egypt, the pro-democracy crowd is likely to be held down by those wishing to instill an Islamocracy and the remnants of the military that decide to support them.

It's entirely likely that a new Libya will be even more oppressive than Qadhafi (sometime between then and now), in which case we may have chosen poorly between bad and worse. I'm really curious to see how it all plays out.

Anonymous said...

II haven't seen much analysis as to what kind of factions will likely coalesce to form the new government = I have been too lazy to read anything that could possibly challenge the assumptions I make based on my talk radio and conservative blogosphere consumption.

It's entirely likely that a new Libya will be even more oppressive than Qadhafi = It's entirely likely you have no clue what the hell you're talking about and just are suspicious of Islam and "Sharia" in general, because you are buried up to the eyeballs in idiotic, bigoted talking heads spouting nonsense.

HT said...

Here's something I'm not clear on. The Libyan ambassador is being interviewed now. I fully expected him to lament the destruction of Tripoli. Was he not appointed by Ghadaffi? But no, he's praising the rebels, etc etc...

hoop said...

Al-Jazeera (English) feed is online if anybody's interested:

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

Paul said...

And now watch the rebels turn on each other in the coming months.

Palladian said...

"I'm proud to be part of building a new world with my ARAB MUSLIM brothers in Libya, a world of tolerance not bigotry."

LOL. That made me spit my mint tea all over the desk.

themightypuck said...

I thought the official statement regarding Libya was pretty awesome although it's mostly awesome because the dude who was very likely behind the Lockerbie crash is going down.

Anonymous said...

"the dude who was very likely behind the Lockerbie crash is going down."

Happy for the relatives of the survivors.

Happy for Libyans who wanted to be free of Gadhafi.

Roger J. said...

What happened to Q's double breasted Ukrainian nurse?

Thats my big question.

Second Canucks post above

roesch-voltaire said...

McCain was right so was Juan Cole who long ago pointed out that Gadhafi had lost his popular support and ruled by terror. Cole gives some interesting insights and Myths about the Libya War in today's blog, which I think is worth reading.