This article*, by Clive Irving, was posted on Yahoo! News on Aug. 22: “Libya War’s Unsung Heroes.
I’m going to quote portions of that article and intersperse my comments. Highlights below (in yellow) did not appear in the original but are mine for emphasis:
QUOTE:
Somewhere high over the Mediterranean right now, a small crew of military specialists sits hunched over computer screens aboard a cruising jet [nicknamed AWACS – Airborne Warning and Control System]. They could be American, British, or French. Since March they have been the commanding brains of the NATO mission against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in Libya. Largely unseen and unsung, they are as responsible as anyone for Gaddafi’s defeat.
:UNQUOTE.
COMMENT:
Remember: The title of the article is “Libya War’s Unsung Heroes.” There’s nothing heroic about what the AWACS crews did, which was akin to shooting fish in a barrel.
I remember some of the more hawkish Americans calling suicide bombers in Afghanistan cowards, challenging them to “Face us on the battlefield in a fair fight between military combatants instead of blowing up innocents.” Of course, that wouldn’t have been a fair fight either – considering our side’s superior firepower (not to mention, again, air power).
I disagree with the suicide bomber on moral as well as strategic grounds. But even he – who, after all, won’t be coming home from his mission – must be considered more heroic than the air jockey flying high and mighty out of harm’s way.
QUOTE:
What makes the NATO Libya operation unique is that it is, literally, a complex battlefield directed and operated entirely in the air. The AWACS crews have to control all the resources being deployed simultaneously, a sky full of airplanes of every type and size flying from high in the stratosphere down to near sea level…Virtually all the aerial refueling was provided by the U.S. Air Force.
:UNQUOTE.
COMMENT:
I highlighted battlefield above. And yet, not one country among the allied forces actually bothered to issue a declaration of war.
QUOTE:
The U.S., British, and French air forces each provided their own AWACS airplanes to maintain 24/7 coverage of the war theater…
On Monday, NATO confirmed that since the Libyan operations began its forces have flown 19,877 sorties, including 7,505 that were strikes against Gaddafi’s forces and installations…
:UNQUOTE.
COMMENT:
Those are some pretty impressive stats. But I can’t help but wondering how much fighting the rebels actually did. As for heroic, perhaps that term would be better applied to Gaddafi’s loyalists who were on the receiving end of this “smear” campaign. I wonder what motivates such a soldier when he surely must know the Western powers are throwing all those bombs at him. Maybe they know something about the “rebels” that we have yet to find out – much to our chagrin.
QUOTE:
At the outset, the first priority was to enforce the no-fly zone that rendered Gaddafi’s Air Force impotent. But whatever the euphemisms employed to cover the air operations—such as “a limited support role”—the coordination of NATO air power and the rebels on the ground steadily improved from those early days when the first rebel attacks were chaotic and NATO pilots could barely distinguish who was friend or foe.
:UNQUOTE.
COMMENT:
“Euphemisms,” you say? How about, outright lies, as in another sentence in this article which reads: “ … under the guise of “protecting” them, NATO set about a relentless war of attrition until the rebels could close in on that final Gaddafi compound in Tripoli.” This is absolutely correct and I’ll quote it again: “NATO set about a relentless war of attrition…” That is, “set about” as in, that was their goal from the very beginning.
As for “NATO pilots could barely distinguish who was friend or foe,” that could ironically be said of each pilot as he looks at his fellow pilots – as in “with friends like us, We-the-People don’t need enemies.” The US pilots violated the Constitution by engaging in this highly illegal operation. The NATO pilots (including ours) violated the UN mandate itself by going above and beyond its parameters. And they did this knowingly and not in the heat of the moment.
QUOTE:
(It’s been evident for a while that some of the more tactical targeting has been assisted by French and British special forces on the ground.)
:UNQUOTE.
COMMENT:
Personal opinion? Those special forces connected with sleeper cells (our guys) which had been planted in Libya years ago, just waiting for US/NATO orders. There wasn’t anything spontaneous about the Libyan uprising, except among those who were sincerely demonstrating after Friday evening prayers. To be sure, many did join up in the spirit of revolution. But this subversive operation had been set in motion years ago, just waiting for the “go ahead” from DC.
Once upon a time, during times of war, intrepid journalists would risk life and limb to report directly from the war zone. But not this time. Why? We haven’t seen much in the way of photos to verify how much fighting the rebels had done. I still can’t get over how clean their clothes looked (not to mention their bodies) in the few photos that managed to make it for mass consumption in the Western press. And those photos looked staged!
QUOTE:
And even though the outcome now looks and smells like victory, NATO’s resources were severely stretched…
:UNQUOTE.
COMMENT:
This will be just another excuse to jack up the military budget. The pols will say, “We took Libya, which was quite a prize and will return our investment quite handsomely. But, my dear peasant taxpayer, such victories don’t come cheap, so we’ll have to raise your taxes”…or words to that effect.
QUOTE:
Both Cameron and Sarkozy will now brandish their cojones, claiming to have had “a good war.”
:UNQUOTE.
COMMENT:
The best they can claim is to have had “a profitable foreign adventure,” for this surely wasn’t a war – or at least not a declared one. As for their cojones, I doubt they really have any balls at all, if they have to get off by shooting fish in a barrel – or by having their minions do it for them.
Closing Comments
I wonder what the Sub-Saharan African man in the street must be thinking. Maybe: “Europe went to a lot of trouble to re-colonize Libya. Is any country safe from this kind of behavior?”
What about the Russians? Even if they had wanted to object, they no longer have the power to back it up. Maybe they’ll be tempted to increase their military budget in the face of such blatant abuse of the UN’s mandate. China is definitely paying attention, noting carefully to what extent we’ll go, including a willingness to violate our own laws and conventions.
Our enemies have taken due note of our behavior and will bide their time in getting even. Sadly, we won’t even know what hit us or why when that dreadful day of reckoning occurs.
I came to realize one of the truisms of American politics. Even though Obama’s supporters have been disappointed by many of his actions, they will cut him some slack on Libya for two very “good” reasons:
· We won without much cost or loss of life;
· We won’t abandon our President for this “infraction,” since we don’t want to see a Republican dethrone him in 2012.
Each US President has this built-in cushion of support, therefore making it easy for him to overlook/ignore the law. And We-the-People, for the most part, don’t seem to mind at all. However, this is short-term thinking. The blowback from our Libyan adventure will be felt for years to come, though only gradually at first. But our electorate won’t be able to figure out why, or how those seeds of destruction were planted. And our “free press” won’t bother to enlighten us – this isn’t the kind of news that makes money for their parent corporations by selling advertising.
Steven Searle for US President in 2012
Founder of The Independent Contractors’ Party
“Our ‘victory’ in Libya will turn out to be of Pyrrhic proportions.”
* First printed in The Daily Beast.
Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com
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