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[EmperorNuthulu]

Gee...an armed intervention *with* a UN mandate, multinational support at the outset, and the support of the people being liberated. And no bullshit about WMD's. I feel like tracking down Don Rumsfeld and saying, "THIS is how you do it, bitch!"

And France is leading the charge. Seriously, this is what Bush said the situation was last time, except this time it's actually true!

[Stereotype mocking joke] Those French will just surrender, within a week Qaddafi will be drinking wine in Paris![/Stereotype mocking joke].

 Also, just an interesting thing I've noticed.

Qaddafi: Those protesters and anyone who dislikes Libya are Al-Qaeda!
Fox News/Some right wing people: Those Liberals and anyone who dislikes America are Al-Qaeda!

[RedKing]

Well, when the Egyptian revolution began, FOX was pretty much saying that the protesters were al-Qaeda. Because, y'know...freedom and democracy are anti-American extremist values. They kinda learned to shut the hell up with regards to Libya, although now they're starting to build a storyline of the Bahraini and Yemeni protesters being an "Iranian-funded insurrection", just because they're Shi'a. 

Speaking of...Yemen is getting uglier and Syria is getting much uglier. At least 13 dead today as security forces opened fire on protesters in a mosque in southern Syria today. And there have been over 1000 arrests in the last few weeks, targeting bloggers, journalists and others who have been critical of the al-Assad regime.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Nothing going on in Yemen is going to end well. We're talking about a country that Saudi Arabia built a gigantic militarized barrier against because they consider everyone there to be reactionary and crazy. The Saudi Arabian government considers a nation to be reactionary and crazy. That is all you need to know to see how well a revolution in Yemen will turn out.

[Il Palazzo]

Qaddafi: Those protesters and anyone who dislikes Libya are Al-Qaeda!
Fox News/Some right wing people: Those Liberals and anyone who dislikes America are Al-Qaeda!

...and then John was a zombie.

[GlyphGryph]

Welp, apparently the US is continuing its fundamental mission to screw shit up whenever possible.

They recovered that downed pilot, and in the process racked up a couple of friendly casualties. Despite no sign of enemy activity. Despite the fact the Libyans they shot up had made no hostile moves. You know, its almost as if we WANT people to hate us.

[Phmcw]

US troops have the reputation to be trigger happy and undisciplined among Belgian soldiers, I guess it's justified.
More insistence on training and discipline, and probably getting rid of the religious fanatics would help, too.

[PTTG??]

I've heard the rumors, but I'm really unsure as to if this actually happened or not. I could see it going both ways.

[Zangi]

Honestly, in the case of Libya, I'd prefer the UN/US to have stayed out of it. 
It sets precedent.  Its going to be asking us to also do more elsewhere.  Expectations have been increased where it will not be fulfilled.
Albeit, in those other places where civilians get slaughtered, the 'offenders' don't really have armor, artillery or air...


The Libyan rebels are losing the fight. Are we going to let them fail now after committing what we have already?  Is the international community going to fund and train them?  Turning it into a 'policed' proxy war?  Is someone going to send ground troops? 

If you are going to do it half-arsed... you may as well have let them get rolled in the first place. 
Does getting that false glimmer of hope smashed hurt more then never having gotten help in the first place?

And where is the declaration of war?  Oh right, we don't fight wars anymore...  just 'police' action.

[Phmcw]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/24/sacked-ambassador-russian-tension-libya
Hmmm, Russia has humanitarian reason not to want the strikes. hehe.

[DJ]

If the rebels lose, Gadaffi will make Pol Pot look like an amateur.

[Phmcw]

If the rebels lose, Gadaffi will make Pol Pot look like an amateur.

Sarkozy's pride is in the balance : he'd rather have France decimated than to let kadhafi alive this time.

[Aqizzar]

There's quite a few people making, reasonably legitimate, criticism of President Obama for not getting Congressional approval before committing military assets to action in Libya.  Joining those critics is Oliver North.  If you are historically astute enough to know at a glance what that is drop-dead hilarious, feel free to speak your mind.

In other news, Nicholas Kristof is now reporting from Benghazi.  The massive exodus of Libyans into Egypt has turned around, and the preponderance of traffic is now flowing back into eastern Libya.  The political situation in the rebel capitol is still dysfunctional to say the least, but its hard to find someone not appreciative of the NATO airstrikes.  Loyalist forces massing on Ajdabiya have been scattered, and the city is in street-to-street battle.

[Kogan Loloklam]

I have to wonder how the Nato forces backing the UN resolution would justify playing "protester" air force if Qaddafi weren't on the offensive. Granted it was his blatant disregard for the ordered cease fire that allowed it, but still...

TECHNICALLY, there are forces that the President has 48 hours of operation he is allowed to use without informing congress. He then has 60 days to operate without congressional approval. Anything after that actually requires approval. Of course that was before 9/11 gave bush all them powers to fight them nasty terrorists in Iraq that were developing Nuclear Bombs.
Now a president can operate indefinitely as long as he can prove a link between the state and terrorism.
In Libya that is exceptionally easy, and it's a credit to Obama that he hasn't done that despite the wishes of the Libyan people.

I do hope that he operates intelligently and goes to congress for approval anyway though.

Bit of Trivia, Marines and Army Rangers pride themselves in being able to deploy before 48 hours have passed. Most operations the US Military has embarked on in recent history have eliminated all organized conventional resistance within the first 60 days of combat operations.

[olemars]

AC-130 gunships on the way. Those will be very helpful in blowing shit up maintaining the No-Fly-Zone.

And with an ongoing air campaign a rare life-form crawls out of the woodworks, the military aircraft paparazzi.

[Puzzlemaker]

Egypt passed a vote for constitutional amendments.  Some say it's moving too fast and the opposition doesn't have time to get together candidates for elections.  Others say if it stalls it will stay stalled, so we have to keep it moving.

Syria is having heavy protests, as security clamps down and people are killed.  Lots of anger is brewing.

In Yemen, the "president" is being defiant as thousands of protesters march the streets.  Lots of defections to the opposition side by the military.

Algeria looks like it might be puttering out, but we may still see reforms, just not revolutions.

Tunisia is still puttering along towards the road to democracy; They are making progress, but it's going slowly.

Bahrain is still heavily suppressing the protests, having torn down a three hundred foot monument that was a gathering point for the protesters.  The GCC, Gulf Co-operation Council, sent troops to help quiet the protesters, a force which was mostly lead by Saudi Arabia.  There are conflicting reports, but it looks like the soldiers opened fire on them.  The support from the other Gulf states may have quelled the protests. 

And now to Aqizzar, with the weather.