Argue the issue of whether we should be at war or not and which ones all day, that’s fine… but I’ve never understood the “exit strategy” principle. It’s like an invention of brainless whelps whose limited understanding of strategy was Sun Tzu’s spelling words with little wooden blocks as a baby.
It’s one thing to be on a mission and need to have a way to get your troops out of that melee, especially if it gets too hairy. It’s another to pre-design, and announce, your time of natural surrender where by your enemy just waits you out while reserving its forces and wears as much as possible.
It’s like hanging an hours of operation signage on your business with another sign saying “no need for alarm, the doors are always open.” Sure makes it easy for the bad guys.
It’s like the strategy was developed from a boxing match where there are only so many rounds (all timed) and then you stop fighting and leave regardless of whether or not your opponent is knocked out. So long as they can last the predetermined rounds then they automatically win. BRILLIANT!!!!
Deposing crazy dictators who will not hesitate to murder thousands of innocent people is messy and complicated. While it’s always fun to play Monday-morning quarterback, I thought the entrance and exit strategies were about as well planned and laid out as could be done, given the complexities.
Sometimes military solutions are the lesser of the evils, and outcome is not always predictable.
To be fair, I’m actually impressed that anyone from the left’s media actually brought something up against Obama on this since they’ve let him slide on nearly every single thing when pouncing and drubbing on Bush as soon as a hint of anything arose.
Whether that will continue or be as wide reaching is yet to be seen. If it does then that won’t bode well for Obama’s chance at re-election.
There was a delay for planning, then an action to prevent a “bad action”, now, hopefully, we will turn things over- tomorrow to let others “run the show”. Gee, compared to Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, that isn’t even a blink. With Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, potentially Saudi Arabia, hardly “settled”– Cool Hand Luke offers a lot more solutions than a Texas cowboy.
canuck:….. put your ear to the ground in the US…. there has been enormous howling about the cost of the wars…don’t you realize that that is how obambi blames bush for our economic plight….rather than point to our government which forced lenders to make uncollectable loans to unqualified borrowers….the real cause
trout….he turned the operation over to NATO who is US
^ no kidding… All I ever heard was the whining about the cost of war and the solution to our great debt was to pull out of Iraq, etc., etc. Even in these comics I saw a litany of both toons and comments reflecting those and similar stances. Maybe you’re not in the states Doc… but you’ve been on this sight longer than I have and more active. Please, do not feign ignorance now just for a mere worthless point.
Libya costing 100 million a day? Really. That really does surprise me since neither of the other wars had that high a cost to my recollection. But with us speaking in terms of hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars on so many other things it might have gotten lost in the numbers.
But to be fair, since we’ve launched all but 7 of the 200 tomahawk missiles that number seems quite reasonable.
I’m lost now, though, whether we’re supposed to be the leaders of the free world, let others handle their own mess, be equal in a world wide gov’t, apologizing for all our misdeeds and in being the “big poppa” for the world or what. I’m so confused. Nothing is logic, congruent or consistent with this kinda stuff anymore. Especially since our role changes with nearly every administration (which then might act inconsistently to boot).
We should remember that Robert E Lee and George Armstrong Custer were “leaders”- 1 wrong cause, second wrong “leader”. Lee was reluctant, Custer- well, stupid.
^I like hard-boiled eggs, but only so many at a time.
^nice thought bluejayz,
but that’s the “setup” obama walked into. Bush did two long wars without it being in the budget. As soon as Obama put it in the budget, he was (and continues to be) accused of doubling/tripling etc… the deficit.
they can buy whatever they want (especially jet engines for planes that will never exist because they are built in the republican speakers district - at 400 million a pop).
it’s time to warm up the tar, break out the feathers and ready the pitchforks and torches.
“set up, like a bowling pin, knocked down, gets to wearing thin”
DjGuardian over 13 years ago
Argue the issue of whether we should be at war or not and which ones all day, that’s fine… but I’ve never understood the “exit strategy” principle. It’s like an invention of brainless whelps whose limited understanding of strategy was Sun Tzu’s spelling words with little wooden blocks as a baby.
It’s one thing to be on a mission and need to have a way to get your troops out of that melee, especially if it gets too hairy. It’s another to pre-design, and announce, your time of natural surrender where by your enemy just waits you out while reserving its forces and wears as much as possible.
It’s like hanging an hours of operation signage on your business with another sign saying “no need for alarm, the doors are always open.” Sure makes it easy for the bad guys.
It’s like the strategy was developed from a boxing match where there are only so many rounds (all timed) and then you stop fighting and leave regardless of whether or not your opponent is knocked out. So long as they can last the predetermined rounds then they automatically win. BRILLIANT!!!!
DavidGBA over 13 years ago
Did they impound enough to pay for it?
After all, there is precedent: In Brazil (the movie, and maybe the history), they charge you for your own interrogation.
Gypsy8 over 13 years ago
Deposing crazy dictators who will not hesitate to murder thousands of innocent people is messy and complicated. While it’s always fun to play Monday-morning quarterback, I thought the entrance and exit strategies were about as well planned and laid out as could be done, given the complexities.
Sometimes military solutions are the lesser of the evils, and outcome is not always predictable.
pirate227 over 13 years ago
Clark, it’s much harder to run our empire if we do that.
DJ, that’s why we’re still in Afghanistan.
DjGuardian over 13 years ago
^ Maybe a championship fight? heh.
To be fair, I’m actually impressed that anyone from the left’s media actually brought something up against Obama on this since they’ve let him slide on nearly every single thing when pouncing and drubbing on Bush as soon as a hint of anything arose.
Whether that will continue or be as wide reaching is yet to be seen. If it does then that won’t bode well for Obama’s chance at re-election.
Dtroutma over 13 years ago
There was a delay for planning, then an action to prevent a “bad action”, now, hopefully, we will turn things over- tomorrow to let others “run the show”. Gee, compared to Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, that isn’t even a blink. With Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, potentially Saudi Arabia, hardly “settled”– Cool Hand Luke offers a lot more solutions than a Texas cowboy.
Magnaut over 13 years ago
canuck:….. put your ear to the ground in the US…. there has been enormous howling about the cost of the wars…don’t you realize that that is how obambi blames bush for our economic plight….rather than point to our government which forced lenders to make uncollectable loans to unqualified borrowers….the real cause
trout….he turned the operation over to NATO who is US
DjGuardian over 13 years ago
^ no kidding… All I ever heard was the whining about the cost of war and the solution to our great debt was to pull out of Iraq, etc., etc. Even in these comics I saw a litany of both toons and comments reflecting those and similar stances. Maybe you’re not in the states Doc… but you’ve been on this sight longer than I have and more active. Please, do not feign ignorance now just for a mere worthless point.
DjGuardian over 13 years ago
Libya costing 100 million a day? Really. That really does surprise me since neither of the other wars had that high a cost to my recollection. But with us speaking in terms of hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars on so many other things it might have gotten lost in the numbers.
But to be fair, since we’ve launched all but 7 of the 200 tomahawk missiles that number seems quite reasonable.
I’m lost now, though, whether we’re supposed to be the leaders of the free world, let others handle their own mess, be equal in a world wide gov’t, apologizing for all our misdeeds and in being the “big poppa” for the world or what. I’m so confused. Nothing is logic, congruent or consistent with this kinda stuff anymore. Especially since our role changes with nearly every administration (which then might act inconsistently to boot).
DjGuardian over 13 years ago
Oh wow… dtroutma… I might actually agree with your closing point. How often does that happen?
Dtroutma over 13 years ago
We should remember that Robert E Lee and George Armstrong Custer were “leaders”- 1 wrong cause, second wrong “leader”. Lee was reluctant, Custer- well, stupid.
^I like hard-boiled eggs, but only so many at a time.
Rocky Premium Member over 13 years ago
Exit Strategy: When all the bad guys are dead; Leave. Until then you are not finished. ( Yet another reason God made napalm and Tomahawk missles.)
Bluejayz over 13 years ago
NO INCREASED PENTAGON BUDGET FOR LIBYA!! Take the money out of the F-135 jet engines and other Pentagon waste.
dannysixpack over 13 years ago
^nice thought bluejayz, but that’s the “setup” obama walked into. Bush did two long wars without it being in the budget. As soon as Obama put it in the budget, he was (and continues to be) accused of doubling/tripling etc… the deficit.
they can buy whatever they want (especially jet engines for planes that will never exist because they are built in the republican speakers district - at 400 million a pop).
it’s time to warm up the tar, break out the feathers and ready the pitchforks and torches.
“set up, like a bowling pin, knocked down, gets to wearing thin”