The UK Telegraph decided to give Obama’s speech last night a run at the facts. The last one is particularly interesting considering they went back to his book “Dreams from my Father” to show his duplicity.
This is a must read:
OBAMA: “Our most effective alliance, Nato, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. … In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role.”
THE FACTS: The US is, and always has been, the pre-eminent player in Nato. The United States supplies 22 per cent of NATO’S budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all Nato operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO’S Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral’s boss is the supreme allied Commander Europe, a post always held by an American.
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OBAMA: “Our military mission is narrowly focused on saving lives.”
THE FACTS: Even as the US steps back as the nominal leader, the scope of the mission appears to be expanding and the end game remains unclear. Despite insistences that the operation is only to protect civilians, US officials admit air strikes now are undeniably helping the rebels to advance. “Clearly they’re achieving a benefit from the actions that we’re taking,” Vice-Admiral William Gortney, staff director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday. Mr Obama said the US would “pursue the broader goal of a Libya that belongs not to a dictator, but to its people,” but spoke of achieving that through diplomacy and political pressure, not force of US arms.
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OBAMA: Seeking to justify military intervention, the president said the U.S. has “an important strategic interest in preventing Gaddafi from overrunning those who oppose him. A massacre would have driven thousands of additional refugees across Libya’s borders, putting enormous strains on the peaceful – yet fragile – transitions in Egypt and Tunisia.”
THE FACTS: This may be true, but Mr Obama did not wait to make that case to Congress. In the past, he has insisted statements that presidents should get congressional authorisation before taking the country to war, absent a threat to the nation that cannot wait. “The president does not have the power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorise a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,” he told The Boston Globe in 2007 during his presidential campaign.
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OBAMA: “And tonight, I can report that we have stopped Gadhafi’s deadly advance.”
THE FACTS: The weeklong international barrage has disabled Libya’s air defences, communications networks and supply chains, but US military officials say Mr Gaddafi’s ground forces remain a potent threat to the rebels and civilians. General Carter Ham, the top American officer overseeing the mission, told The New York Times on Monday that “the regime still overmatches opposition forces militarily. The regime possesses the capability to roll them back very quickly. Coalition air power is the major reason that has not happened.” Only small numbers of Gaddafi’s troops have defected to the opposition, Gen Ham said.
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OBAMA: “Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And, as president, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.”
THE FACTS: In his book The Audacity of Hope, Mr Obama asked, “Why invade Iraq and not North Korea or Burma? Why intervene in Bosnia and not Darfur?” Mass violence against civilians has been escalating in several nations, notably the Cote d’Ivoire, but no US intervention is expected there. More than 1 million people have fled the Ivory Coast, where the UN says forces loyal to the incumbent leader, Laurent Gbagbo, have used heavy weapons against the population. More than 460 killings have been confirmed of supporters of the internationally recognised president, Alassane Ouattara. The Obama administration says Mr Gbagbo and Mr Gadhafi have both lost their legitimacy to rule. But only one is under attack from the US.
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