Unlike the war in Iraq, there was no lengthy build up or debate.
Qaddafi has defied one United Nations resolution, not sixteen as Saddam did prior to the American invasion of Iraq. Nor did he do anything to deliberately attack American forces prior to the United Nations’ action to mobilize (Saddam’s forces fired repeatedly on American aircraft). Nor does the United States have any grounds to believe that Libya now possesses any weapons of mass destruction (no one ever discovered what actually happened to Saddam’s). In fact, Libya actually cooperated with the United States to disclose and dismantle their nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs.
The double standard between the left and right about wars of intervention has never been so nakedly exposed.
At least one can make some argument about why invading Iraq was in America’s vital interests. For Libya, I can come up with no argument whatsoever.
Yet, where is MoveOn.Org? Where are the protestors in the street engaging in ad hominem attacks on the President and reductio ad Hitlerium?
The only person I must give credit to on the left is Cindy Sheehan. She may be a nut, but at least she is consistent and sticks to her guns.
However, one thing is clear. The time for second guessing is over. Our nation is in the midst of a conflict and our forces need our support.
The one thing that consistently demoralized me when I was in the military was that few on the left spoke out before the Iraqi War began (as many on the right have failed to speak out before this one), but when things appeared to be getting tough, they questioned the mission every chance they got while our troops were in harm’s way.
While the time for debate never began, the time for debate is now over.
Now that the die is cast, America must unite in seeing this conflict to a swift and successful conclusion.
Reflections of a Rational Republican 
The only comments I’ve seen against American “imperialism” here are from Farrakhan.
Perhaps there’s little else because there’s no ground troops? (OK, I know that’s really not the answer, but just sayin’.)
As for the demoralization, it pains me to hear that from guys on the ground (and I’ve heard it before). I don’t get the left hypocrisy of “supporting our troops” but condemning what they’re there to do by way of PC and leftist policies that increase the harm that they are put in the way of just so they themselves can feel more morally “superior”, “smarter”, and more “humane” here at home when the fact is they are none of the three.
Maybe. My test is how would the left react if George W. Bush took the exact same actions. I think you know the answer. 😉
The problem is that unless the United States or its allies have the nerve to use ground troops, Qaddafi can just hunker down and wait it out like Saddam did for 11 years.
Yeah. One thing that really angered some of my friends still in uniform was the Army’s response to the Major Hassan massacre. One friend sent me two quotes to show how America has done a complete 180 on portraying the other in this country:
— Admiral Bill Halsey, 1941
-General George Casey, 2009
One is PC-matter, the other, PC-anti-matter. I cannot tell which is worse.
And now we’ve got the new reports of “Obama’s Ghraib”. This will most certainly cloud the issue for many.
Tech note: I’m logged in to my wordpress, yet it’s not bringing my info in when I go to post (I have to enter my name and email again?)
Fair comment about Moveon.org and other’s on the Left not speaking out. It is hypocritical, although there wasn’t any rebellion going on in Iraq prior to our invasion. Totally unfair, however, not to mention the steady cacophony of criticism from the Right about Obama’s lack of support for the rebels, why it’s been so tepid, so delayed and insufficient. Check out what McCain, Graham, Lieberman, Palin, and Fox News have been saying about how Obama’s not doing enough to blow Khaddafy away.
Not true at all. There was a widespread Shia rebellion right after the First Gulf War and Saddam was constantly fighting against the Kurds in the north over the whole period. It was the whole point of the no-fly zone.
Maybe I didn’t go into this level of detail, but I did mention the right’s failure to challenge Obama about going in. Your point is a fair one. George Will seems to be one of the only people on the right who has been logical about this whole thing. It unfair to accuse Obama of being tepid. He was being smart. Now, he’s not. As I said in my post:
Actually left wing idiot Michael Moore is blasting Obama on Libya . So add him to Cindy Sheehan . I guess Bush really wasn’t so bad, if Barak is making war on Muslims who didn’t attack us . I said it before, the longer Obama is in office, the better Bush looks .
I completely agree.