Inkwell Institute
Middles East Desk
NO! This is NOT a post about some royal wedding!
Once again, if I am mistaken I hope that my friend and reader Quin of Quintessential Havoc (my blogroll will take you to his site….visit often!) will help me and others understand the complexity of this situation…..
Has the world learned nothing from the US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan?
The battle for Libya is forming stupid responses around the world….and the UK and France are about to make one of their own…..I know….what am I going on about?
This from a report by Patrick O’Connor:
The British Conservative-Liberal government of Prime Minister David Cameron and the French administration of President Nicolas Sarkozy are moving closer to deploying ground forces in Libya, escalating the neocolonial war being waged against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
In a televised interview, Cameron repeatedly refused to rule out launching operations involving ground troops. “What we’ve said is there is no question of an invasion or an occupation, this is not about Britain putting boots on the ground, this is not what we are about here,” he declared.
The European Union has prepared a force of 1,000 troops and drawn up a “concept of operations” for deployment to Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, located 200 kilometres from the capital Tripoli. The mission, named EUFOR Libya, has its operation headquarters in Italy, Libya’s former colonial ruler, and is under the command of an Italian rear admiral.
The EU’s 27 member-states decided to prepare the EUFOR Libya force at the beginning of the month—before the fighting in Misrata intensified—and they are now awaiting approval for deployment from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Guardian has reported: “With the situation in Libya, particularly Misrata, getting more critical, diplomats in Brussels say the pressure is mounting on the UN to authorise the EU force.”
Fierce rivalries between the powers are emerging ever more openly. The French government has reportedly exerted “strong pressure” on the EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, to secure UN approval for EUFOR Libya. However, the EU force is largely comprised of German troops. The German government of Angela Merkel abstained on Security Council resolution 1973, but has since shifted its position—keen to secure its share of Libya’s lucrative oil reserves in the event Gaddafi is ousted—and has backed the possible deployment of ground forces. The Sarkozy government’s concern at being outmanoeuvred by Berlin no doubt prompted Poniatowski’s demand for more French special forces to be sent into Libya.
What are they doing? Are they going to take out a dictator that is dangerous to his people? Does that sound familiar? What is the EU doing?
Hey guys! Take a good close look at what has happened to the US in its rush to remove Saddam…look at the consequences….you are about to bite off more than you can digest!
Well – maybe. I personally doubt it will happen and even if it does, what are a thousand troops going to do (especially German ones under Italian control – if that’s what it will be)?
Personally, I haven’t heard that much about it, but that may be because I don’t much care. However, would you REALLY expect a Prime Minister, President or other leader to announce all his plans in detail to the f*cking press so his enemy can check it all out for crissake?
Of course, Iraq is a salutary lesson, although Saddam Hussein was more or less “pro-western” (until America really pissed him off), whereas Gaddafi is anything but. Additionally, SH was moderately clever, Gaddafi is right out of his tree. But, whether you believe we should have gone into Iraq or not is kind of irrelevant – the one person who screwed it ALL up was Runsfeld – he got the numbers wrong, he got the timing wrong, he disbanded an army and police he could have “sanitised” and then used, he had NO effective plan to control or organise what occurred AFTER the war was initially won. In fact, I can’t off-hand think of ANYTHING he got right!
So, just so long as you guys don’t insist on Donald Bloody Runsfeld getting anywhere near Libya, it’s hardly comparable…
The US did not get much right in the beginning of Iraq and then the Sunni tribes decided to play ball and we got the credit for being geniuses……The problem I see is there are 61 tribes in Libya and once Qaddafi has split, either physically or literally, I suspect that the violence will turn on each other…hopefully the UK will not get caught up in playing the referee……
I don’t think we will get too involved – we don’t any longer have the money or the facilities – the ONLY good result (albeit entirely accidentally) of Gordon Brown wasting all our money on daft ideas that didn’t work.
Incidentally (sorry, off topic), have you seen that that twat has been raking in hundreds of thousand of pounds for speaking about finance!? Why would anyone pay a jerk like that who so royally f*cked up to keep on lecturing on his failed ideas? Does humanity NEVER learn.
I see what you mean…however, as I have posted before being a supplier of stuff can be just as disastrous as being there….9/11 comes to mind….we gave AQ funds, guns and training whilke they were fighting the Russians….I just do not want to see any mistakes that will bite others in the ass….