Obama hails death of Muammar Gaddafi as foreign policy success

President warns other Middle Eastern dictators, particularly Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, that they could be next!!!  (!!! are mine, sorry)

President Barack Obama hailed the lifting of the “dark tyranny” over Libya after the new government confirmed Muammar Gaddafi had been killed, issuing a warning to other dictators in the Middle East – and particularly Syria – that they could be next.

Although Obama did not name Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, it was he Obama had in mind when he said the rule of the iron fist in the Middle East is inevitably coming to an end. Those leaders that try to deny the push for democracy will not succeed, he predicted….

The former Nato commander, Wesley Clark, asked if the same strategy could be used in Syria, replied: “Could be.” He told CNN that every country had to be approached differently: “Syria is going to be different from Libya, but it shows Nato is capable of a sustained effort.”

Obama, facing re-election next year, chalked up Libya as another foreign policy success to place alongside the killing in May of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the drawdown of most US troops from Iraq by the end of the year, and the first phase of a gradual pullout of troops from Afghanistan….

Obama’s approach to Libya was to provide US air power in support of the rebels but not putting US troops on the ground, leaving that to other countries, mainly France and Britain.

In the Rose Garden, he basked in his success: “Without putting a single US service member on the ground, we achieved our objectives, and our Nato mission will soon come to an end.”

Biden, speaking hours before Obama, adopted a clearly partisan approach to news of the dictator’s death, bluntly contrasting the apporach of the Obama administration to Libya with George Bush’s in Iraq.

“In this case, America spent $2bn total and didn’t lose a single life. This is more of the prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward than it has been in the past,” he said, out on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.

 

I anxiously await the political cartoons of the Illinois kid, stetson too big for his head, cap gun on his hip, his hobby-horse waiting for the next command, his sidekick, Pinhead Joe on a donkey, ready to cover the Kid’s back. I also can’t wait for the the op-ed pieces mourning the loss of long fought for American gains from subtle and nuanced foreign policy because our President is a ham-fisted, rude, aggressive Cowboy. I await the TV pundits bemoaning the non war-powers approved bombing of innocent civilians and the summary execution of a foreign head of state at the hands of our surrogates without even as much as a trial *gasp*. The Left will be apoplectic over the murder of Colonel Gaddafi!

As we know, the press will put The Illinois Kid on the white stallion, perfectly fitted stetson, General Patton’s ivory handled pistols gleaming in the brilliant sunshine; Pinhead Joe will get a decent horse and some nice duds, maybe a few more lines of dialogue…fade to the Illinois Kid, “Yer next, Bashar’…The Left will scream in delight at their new hero, The Illinois Kid. As we know, the Left loves the sight of blood when they are the ones doing the spilling.