Month: March 2011

Ackerman reports that "U.S. planes are now attacking Moammar Gadhafi’s ground forces outside major Libyan cities":

[T]he war can be said to have entered a new phase on its fifth day. Libyan aircraft aren’t flying, and the no-fly zone now extends “boundary to boundary” across the Libyan coast. With total mastery over Libyan airspace, the U.S.-led coalition now targets Gadhafi’s most hardcore ground units. That brings the U.S. to the brink of yet another complex urban war, this one waged from the skies.

A reader writes:

I would not be so sure about finding solace in the smallpox situation, at least not according to Lewis Black.

I asked what that was bullshit for, with respect to military support from Kuwait and Jordan. Your suggestions:

Unlimited Mapquest printouts?

We'll provide you with cell service.

All the hummus one can eat.

Shorthand for Jordan and Kuwait have agreed to be publicly listed as part of the intervention, and while they're not really doing much with bombs and guns and such, it gives us political cover with a couple more Arab states making this less "clash of civilizations" sort of deal, and by God we're going to call that logistics.

Via Matt Welch, a story from the Whittier Daily News that makes the blood boil:

The city spent $1.6 million in federal grant money to bring Borders into the Pico Rivera Towne Center and to help pay its rent for nearly eight years. Now the bookstore at 8852 Washington Blvd. is among the 200 Borders stores closing by April in the wake of the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

But the city still faces paying rent on the soon-to-be vacated 18,100-square-foot site, along with other costs associated with 2002 agreements it made with Borders and with Vestar Development Co., which owns the Towne Center. If Borders leaves, the contract with Vestar requires the city to pay the company $33,932.91 a month for 72 months until a new tenant comes in. Vestar will get the money on the condition it is making "commercially reasonable efforts" to secure a new tenant for the site, according to the wording of the agreement.

Stephen Budiansky debunks the myth "that limited war waged by the mighty will overawe the weak into political submission with comparatively little cost, involvement, or trouble":

The trouble is not just that the weak always have tactical recourses that can indefinitely delay total defeat and sap the resolve of the mightiest; the real trouble is the simple fact that limited war is predicated on an enemy's crying uncle at some point far short of annihilation (an end point that requires military commitment of an entirely different kind; see, for example, the Soviet offensive against Germany in World War II). It depends on transforming military means to political ends that the military force employed is almost inevitably ill-matched toward attaining.

You thought Fox News had issues …

I'm not saying that the news on Libyan State TV is far from "fair and balanced", but this fellow seems to out-do even Mr Glenn Beck for a unique perspective on events. In the middle of the news, he pulls out an AK-47 and declares, "In the name of Almighty God, I pledge to you, my Dear Leader, that I will sacrifice my last breath, my last bullet, my last drop of blood, last baby and child for you."

"We are in dark territory and nobody knows what the outcome will be," – secretary of defense Bob Gates.

GOP leaders have "pledged to Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) president Grover Norquist they will not support any deficit reduction package that increases taxes." Bruce Bartlett sighs:

Whatever one thinks about the best way to achieve deficit reduction or tax reform, such rigidity is not conducive to action on either front. Indeed, the idea that every provision of the tax code that lowers revenues must be preserved is the opposite of tax reform. But this appears to be Grover's position. I questioned him myself on this point a few weeks ago. I asked him if he would name a single provision of the tax code that is unjustified and deserving of abolition as part of a revenue-neutral tax reform that would also lower tax rates. Grover was unwilling to name one. He said it was solely the responsibility of the Democrats to come up with revenue-raisers. The only job Republicans had was to cut rates, period.

It looks increasingly as if the war in Libya will be commanded by an ad hoc coalition of the willing under the tricouleur. This is also encouraging:

Qatar has sent four warplanes, the United Arab Emirates has offered support, and British Prime Minister David Cameron said Kuwait and Jordan had agreed to make logistical contributions to protect civilians in Libya…

NATO said the arms embargo mission involved a command-and-control ship from Italy, four frigates from Turkey and one each from Britain, Spain, Greece, Italy, Canada and the United States; submarines from Spain, Italy and Turkey, and auxiliary ships from Italy and Turkey. "This is to cut off the flow of arms and armed mercenaries to the Gaddafi regime," spokeswoman Lungescu said.

I wonder what "logistical contributions" is bullshit for?

(Photo: US, European and Arab leaders pose for a family photo on March 19, 2011 at the Elysee Palace in Paris after a Libya crisis summit.

An ultimatum sent by France, Britain, the United States and Arab countries to Kadhafi yesterday warned Moamer Kadhafi to 'immediately' cease all attacks on his people or face the consequences. (LtoR, foreground), European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Qatar's Prime minister and Foreign minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jaber al Thani, British Prime minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Union president Herman Van Rompuy, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, France's Prime minister Francois Fillon, President Nicolas Sarkozy, Foreign minister Alain Juppe, Arab League chief Amr Mussa, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Denmark Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen. Background : Belgian Prime minister Yves Leterme, Canadian Prime minister Stephen Harper, Morocco's Foreign minister Taib Fassi Fihri, Iraqi's Foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte and Jordan Foreign minister Nasser Judeh. By Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images)

A reader writes:

And exactly how was the treatment of these reporters so much worse than that accorded prisoners at Guantanamo or (fill in with the name of your US supported detention center of choice)? Will this perhaps change the NYT's attitude toward torture by the US? I'm not holding my breath.