GOP on Obama’s Handling of Libya

2012ers on Libya: Scathing or silent

They fall into three categories: No Comment, Back Off, He Sucks.

• The No Comment Crowd:

Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann
We’ll see how he does, then we’ll weigh in. Silence is golden.

• The Back Off Crowd (of one):

Haley Barbour: “Whenever our men and women are involved in military action, every American stands with them and supports them as I do. This is not the time to critique what the administration has done or will do.”
Classy all the way and very diplomatic. Gold star.

• The He Sucks Crowd:

1. John Boehner: “Before any further military commitments are made, the Administration must do a better job of communicating to the American people and to Congress about our mission in Libya and how it will be achieved.”
You better run everything by me and my big gavel.

2. Newt Gingrich: Refers to Obama as the “spectator-in-chief instead of commander-in-chief” and says it “makes us look weak and uncertain and increases the danger in the Persian Gulf.” Also, “This is opportunistic amateurism without planning or professionalism.”
“I want to be POTUS more than any of you losers. That’s why I have the most to say about it.”

3. Rudy Giuliani: “The president of the United States gave (the rebels) encouragement…(and people) got killed and slaughtered by Qadhafi while Obama dithered.”
“‘Dithered’ is a great word. Thanks Sarah.”

4. John McCain: He thinks a no-fly zone isn’t enough. “He waited too long, there is no doubt in my mind about it. But now, it is what it is. And we need, now, to support him and the efforts that our military are going to make. And I regret that it didn’t – we didn’t act much more quickly, and we could have.”
Drop a nuke on Libya, and call it a day.

5. Sarah Palin: There would have been “less dithering” if she were in the White House. “I won’t criticize what (Obama’s) foreign policy has been, but certainly there would have been more decisiveness.”
If you were in the White House, you’d authorize it and go back to setting up your Theocracy.

6. Rick Santorum: “Under any score, I don’t know how you could play this worse than this president has.”
Um, ouch!

Of course, the He Sucks crowd is the largest. This is what happens when you have a POTUS that thinks long and hard before committing the country to a war. He’s not the trigger happy cowboy we’ve gotten used to seeing. He looks before he leaps. He realizes we’re stretched thin enough, militarily. This is a huge commitment on our part.

Why do we always have to take the lead? IMHO, letting the UK and France drive until they needed help was the best strategy. Sadly, he did not follow through with that plan. I’m guessing there was a lot of pressure on him for us to climb back into the driver’s seat. For me, that is what makes him look “weak.” Personally, I would have said, “Look we’re taking a back seat since we still have two wars going. We’ll be there to help them when we’re needed. End of story.” More people would see him as decisive if he said that and stuck to it.

So here we are again. If we give control to NATO in “days not weeks” according to Obama, why couldn’t we have supported the UK and France until they did that themselves. I know, water under the bridge. I hope the transfer happens soon. It probably won’t matter, though. We’ll be involved one way or another. Like always.