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President Obama points to value of ‘collective action’ in Libya
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Oct 21, 2011 01:06pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Thursday, October 20, 2011 07:05:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung, Thursday, October 20, 8:59 PM
Like the U.S. military manhunt for Saddam Hussein, the search for the fugitive dictator Moammar Gaddafi took seven months. He finally popped up, like his Iraqi counterpart, from an inglorious hiding place and is now dead.
The similarities end there.
How President Obama helped bring about the end of a long-standing American antagonist in Libya captures in microcosm the vast difference in the way he and his predecessor, George W. Bush, have employed diplomacy and military power against their declared enemies.
Both approaches resulted in the removal of longtime U.S. nemeses who had enjoyed a few years in Washington’s favor.
But Bush’s invasion cost nearly $1 trillion and more than 4,400 American lives, while Obama’s more limited intervention highlighted a national security strategy that emphasizes global burden-sharing, and secretive tactics and technologies whose legality has been questioned. The NATO airstrikes on Gaddafi’s convoy Thursday included a missile launched from a U.S. drone aircraft.
“Without putting a single U.S. service member on the ground, we achieved our objectives,” Obama said Thursday in a brief Rose Garden appearance.
Obama’s technocratic approach to governing has served him far better in foreign policy, where facts, expert appraisal and intelligence often trump ideology, than it has in domestic politics. At a time of economic uncertainty at home, the achievements abroad, including the killing of Osama bin Laden in May, have not translated into political popularity. |
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