We actually have a fairly legitimate reason to bomb

Ghaddafi's military installations and other government strongholds, more so than we did invading Iraq. Iraq was a blatant exercise of American colonialism under the aegis of Prez. George W. Bush, because he could and he had a big stick. However, in Libya we have the bellicose situation created by Ghaddafi called the airplane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing many Americans for no good reason except to express his hatred of us. We should have taken him out back then, but let's say better later than never.

Our real problem is not having a clear policy for these kinds of situations. I think it's time Congress sat down at the table and hammered one out.

GO TEAM USA!!!1111

we need to find non-military solutions or we just get more killing and more madness

My point is that this military action isn't as heinous as the former ones. We have a dog in this fight and there are the revolutionaries who want our help.

The US has supported disparate anti-Qaddafi groups since Reagan. It would seem these the latest uprising comes from the east, where King Idris was born and the Senussi movement was primarily located.

And then we could meet him at the airport with a hug.

long before W came along.

It can be demonstrated using blowback retribution that for the US to atone for its sins of the past 200 years using deaths in proportion to population levels when they occurred re-proportioned to current population levels would require the demise of the entire population of the USA.

To put it another way - would you have understood 9/11 better if Chile had carried out the attack on the anniversary of the US fucking them over in 1973 ?

"To put it another way - would you have understood 9/11 better if Chile had carried out the attack on the anniversary of the US fucking them over in 1973 ?"

Nice. As a Latin Americanist, I've been so irritated by this whole Libya thing. We close our eyes to atrocities committed by "our" dictators when it suits us.

might as well say "the UK has legitimate cause for going to war because of the policewoman who was shot from a window of the Libyan embassy". That kind of argument confuses the issue. Especially when the use of force has been authorised for legitimate reasons related to the "duty to protect" and to Chapter VII of the UN Charter by the UN Security Council.

Recently?

NB: I support the UN decision and intervention, with reservations.

will American heads explode? Or, maybe we'll all catch World-Government-itis?

On the other hand, would intellectual rigor create a "slippery slope" from citing the UN Charter to justify something... to having to extradite W to the World Court?

(Some ruminations as to why so few even think to cite UN Security Council resolutions to justify... stuff. :+)

Pan Am 103 is not and never was cause for military action. Period.

worthless if the president doesn't even consult the congress.

At least you made a POINT

rather than the Wanna-Be-Rambos here who just want to get their war on

I'm also not so sure that peace and diplomacy is the answer here considering it hasn't worked with this crazy person in the past.

The harder a government cracks down, the harder the resistance fights back

I think whats happening here is that the US wants to be part of the group that 'chooses' the next government. They felt left out of Egypt, and they didn't want that to happen to Libya.

us installing a new sock puppet government. It will bear real scrutiny as to what the White House will do.

Spare me, please.

I said it was a more legitimate reason than invading Iraq.

$1 MILL a tomahawk missile? especially when so many are going hungry, w/o medical care & all these cuts to education? Sorry, but that money is better directed to help Americans at home, not enrich some more defense contractors while killing humans!

If there wasn't oil, we wouldn't interfere.

a whole country in revenge. Innocent people get killed by accident when you bomb a country.

It would be very hypocritical for us to kill innocent people in revenge for him killing innocent people.

However, if it was proven he was responsible for an airplane going down then he should have been prosecuted and brought to justice for that crime.

Have you really never heard of Pan Am Flight 103? The Lockerbie bombing?

I was a young man in college at that time. I am looking into it now on wikipedia.

No offense intended, of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Bombing_of_Libya

After December 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks, which killed 19 and wounded around 140, Gaddafi indicated that he would continue to support the Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army as long as the European governments supported anti-Gaddafi Libyans.<3> The Foreign Minister of Libya also called the massacres "heroic acts".<4>

After years of occasional skirmishes with Libya over Libyan territorial claims to the Gulf of Sidra, the United States contemplated a military attack to strike targets within the Libyan mainland. In March 1986, the United States, asserting the 12-nautical-mile (22 km; 14 mi) limit to territorial waters according to international law, sent a carrier task force to the region. Libya responded with aggressive counter-maneuvers on March 24 that led to the Gulf of Sidra incident.

On 5 April 1986, Libyan agents bombed "La Belle" nightclub in West Berlin, killing three people and injuring 229 people who were spending the evening there. West Germany and the United States obtained cable transcripts from Libyan agents in East Germany who were involved in the attack.

More detailed information was retrieved years later when Stasi archives were investigated by the reunited Germany. Libyan agents who had carried out the operation from the Libyan embassy in East Germany were identified and prosecuted by Germany in the 1990s.<5>

After several days of diplomatic talks with European and Arab partners, President Ronald Reagan ordered a strike on Libya on April 14. Eighteen F-111F strike aircraft of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying from RAF Lakenheath supported by four EF-111A Ravens of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, from RAF Upper Heyford in England, in conjunction with fifteen A-6, A-7, F/A-18 attack aircraft and EA-6B Prowler Electronic Warfare Aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga, USS America and USS Coral Sea on station in the Gulf of Sidra, struck five targets at 02:00 on April 15, with the stated objective that their destruction would send a message and reduce Libya's ability to support and train terrorists. Reagan warned that "if necessary, shall do it again."<6>

The actual attack mission against Libya, had been preceded in October 1985 by an exercise in which the 20th TFW stationed at Upper Heyford airbase in the UK, which was equipped with F-111Es, received a top secret order to on October 18 launch a simulated attack mission, with ten F-111s armed with eight 500 lb practice bombs, against a simulated airfield located in Newfoundland, Canada south of CFB Goose Bay. The mission was designated Operation Ghost Rider. The mission was basically a full rehearsal for a long range strike against Libya. The mission was completed successfully, with the exception of one aircraft that had all but one of its eight bombs hang up on one of its wing racks. The lessons learned were passed on to 48th TFW which was equipped with the newer "F" models of the F-111.<7>

Elements of the then-secret 4450th Tactical Group (USAF) were put on standby to fly the strike mission against Libya. Over 30 F-117s had already been delivered to Tactical Air Command (USAF) and were operating from secret bases in Nevada. Commanders in the North Africa/Mediterranean theaters knew nothing about the capabilities of the F-117, or that the aircraft even existed. Within an hour of the planned launch time for the F-117s, the Secretary of Defense scrubbed the stealth mission, fearing a compromise of the secret aircraft and its development program. The airstrike was carried out with conventional US Navy and US Air Force aircraft. The F-117 would remain completely unknown to the world for several months until it was unveiled in 1988 and featured prominently in media coverage of Operation Desert Storm.

For the Libyan raid, the United States was denied overflight rights by France, Spain and Italy as well as the use of European continental bases, forcing the Air Force portion of the operation to be flown around France, Spain and through the Straits of Gibraltar, adding 1,300 miles (2,100 km) each way and requiring multiple aerial refuelings.
The raid

The attack began at 0200 hours (Libyan time), and lasted about twelve minutes, with 60 tons of munitions dropped. Eighteen F-111 bombers supported by four EF-111 electronic countermeasures aircraft flying from the United Kingdom bombed Tripoli airfield, a frogman training center at a naval academy, and the Bab al-Aziziya barracks in Tripoli. During the bombing of the Bab al-Aziziya barracks, an American F-111 was shot down by a Libyan SAM missile over the Gulf of Sidra. Some bombs landed off-target, striking diplomatic and civilian sites in Tripoli, while the French embassy was only narrowly missed. Some Libyan soldiers abandoned their positions in fright and confusion, and officers were slow to give orders. Libyan anti-aircraft fire did not begin until after the planes had passed over their targets. Twenty-four A-6 Intruders and F/A-18 Hornets launched from aircraft carriers bombed radar and antiaircraft sites in Benghazi before bombing the Benina and Jamahiriya barracks. A number of bombs missed their targets and hit residential areas, along with a number of Western embassies in Benghazi.<8><9><10>

that this action could have.

Sorry, but that is old news, and with a trial and sentencing, it has been long settled.

Nice try though, much like Bush trying to rationalize the Iraqi invasion because Saddam supposedly try to kill his daddy.

- spilling blood and destroying property and homes. Seems to me that when you have to make veiled excuses for a military action that possibly the action wasn't entirely appropriate. But, hey, that's just me.

have been exhausted. Not because we have a fairly legitimate kinda sorta thingee


The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor so we kinda sorta had somewhat of a fairly legitimate......I dont remember that from history class