Obama Launches War While on Spring Break

I never believed in Barack Obama but I never doubted that he existed. Suddenly, I am having doubts. This afternoon I listened to an NPR story by Ari Shapiro about the President's recent trip to Latin America. Here are some nuggets as best I can transcribe them.

Latin America's enthusiasm for the Obama family burst into view the minute the President and First Lady walked into Brasilia's Planalto Palace on Saturday to face the scrum of local and foreign press.

Said one voice "we have so many good things here: Samba, Cachaça, and" something. Samba is a dance and Cachaça is sugarcane booze. I couldn't figure out how to Google the third good thing about Brazil. Shapiro says:

It was all part of a relationship building spring break trip which had as much to do with business as pleasure.

A "relationship-building spring break"! Well, Barack wouldn't be the first American to go south for a little Cachaça during spring break.

I gather that the President talked a lot about jobs. Good enough. The President sees Latin America as buying power to help the U.S. economy and countries that have made a peaceful transition to democracy. Even better. Now: what was he trying to accomplish down there? Shapiro tells us.

Many Presidential foreign trips come with a to do list of deals and treaties that the U.S. hopes to secure, but that was never the focus of this tour. "I think it was pretty heavy on symbolism and light on substance…"

That quote was Michael Shifter, President of Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank in Washington. Shapiro goes on:

It's difficult to gauge success on a trip designed to build a relationship, as White House spokesman Josh Ernest acknowledged during the last stop in El Salvador: "The easiest way to measure the results of the trip are not the things you can measure immediately but certainly over months and years as opportunities expand in this region…"

Let's unpack that. The President's trip to Latin American accomplished nothing that can be measured now and we will scarcely know in the future what influence it had. That's about as close as one could come to saying that it accomplished nothing without actually saying it.

It accomplished nothing. Accomplishing anything of "substance" was "never the focus." It was all hat and no cattle. I think we have to acknowledge that NPR is not without a sense of responsibility. Yes, they put lipstick on the pig, but they still brought the pig out on stage. On its own merits, this trip looks like a very shallow pretence of foreign policy.

Of course, while Latin America was bursting with enthusiasm for the First Family, American cruise missiles were bursting in Libya. I wonder: did any American President ever launch a war while away on a junket? George W. Bush was ruthlessly (and with good reason) raked over the coals for going on vacation while Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans. Barack Obama ordered American forces into harm's way while on spring break.

Of course, the Libyan unpleasantness isn't war. It's a "kinetic military action." That's what the Administration now insists on calling it. See Byron York. As the President finally gets back to Washington, the "coalition" of nations involved in the Libyan adventure is falling apart. From the London Telegraph:

The US President "absolutely" ruled out a land invasion to oust Col Muammar Gaddafi and insisted that America would stand down from its leading military role within days. But uncertainty over who would take over military command deepened as France and Britain remained divided over how central Nato's role would be in the international coalition.

The Administration is promising that the U.S. will hand over military command of the Libyan operations within days. But to who? The Arab League? Germany is threatening to all but pull out of NATO if NATO takes command of the operation. Italy is threatening to deny use of its bases unless the leadership question is resolved. How can it be resolved? If anyone in the Obama Administration has a clue, they are keeping it a secret.

I am having really trouble believing that this empty man is really the President of the United States.

Comments

[larry kurtz]

From the Stars and Stripes, the military's independent source: "Indeed, many in Latin America thought his trip was long overdue. But Obama leaves behind good will in his host countries and leaders buoyed by a sense that his visit brought them and their countries a degree of international validation. By that measure, the trip ends on a successful note."

http://ap.stripes.com/dynamic/stories/L/LT_OBAMA_LATIN_AMERICA_ANALYSIS?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-23-15-37-53

See? You haven't gotten that SAD treated yet, have you, Doc?

[KB]

Larry: yes. Measured by things that are not measurable and of dubious value, the trip was a success.

[larry kurtz]

Appeal his Peace Prize? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/23/obama-nobel-peace-prize-revoked_n_839310.html

[Jimi]

Larry,

You mean "Repeal?" And "Yes," he didn't do anything to get it anyway. Can you give us a good explaination why it was given to Obama?

[Donald Pay]

The only empty man in evidence here is you. Three empty and utterly useless blogs dealing with Libya in a row. Swing and a miss. Swing and a miss. Called out looking. Jump around.

[larry kurtz]

I meant appeal. Obama has nearly six years left to prove he deserved it. My concern is the potential for a domestic insurgency. The President has to address native suicides and trust issues fast or it's going to blow up.

[Ken Blanchard]

We went to war and Donald thinks it doesn't deserve three blog posts. I can understand his adoration of Obama.

[Donald Pay]

If there was anything worthwhile in the blogs, yeah, three blogs would be fine. All you've done so far is jump up and down and whiff on Obama. Got any other thoughts, or hasn't the Republican spin machine told you what to think, yet.

[Miranda]

Donald: If war, possible violations of the constitution and calls for impeachment are not news, I rather wonder what you think IS newsworthy.

If I weren't feeling charitable, I might suggest that you were trying to use personal attacks to make up for the fact that you have no real argument or evidence against any of the claims in the past three blogs.

[Donald Pay]

Way back on March 13 you couldn't make up your mind, and you still can't. The only thoughts on Libya you have are these: you have no idea what to do and you don't like anything that Obama does. You could have said it in one sentence, just like I did there, and then pontificated on what Republicans think are the really issues---NPR and Planned Parenthood funding.

[Stan Gibilisco]

As a "Gerald Ford" type Republican, or so I fancy myself, I would rate the following issues in descending rank of importance right now:

(1) The economy, and in particular, unemployment

(2) The threat posed by radical Islam

(3) The national debt, deficit, and overspending problems

(4) The looming problem with Medicare and, later down the road, Social Security, caused in large measure by changing demographics

In my opinion, neither party is doing anything substantive to address these problems.

Public radio and Planned Parenthood interest me, but they're lost in the fierce noise of the aforementioned issues.

Given the sensitivity of the situations in the Middle East, I think Obama is doing a pretty good job in Libya, even though the redneck in me wants to stick a smart bomb in Kadhafi's ear, preferably while he's delivering one of his public rants.

Good thing I'm not the President of the United States.

[duggersd]

Donald, you are probably right. There are too many blogs here about Libya. I think you should protest by not reading this blog anymore. Perhaps you should even start your own blog and we can all read that. How dare the people here write blogs about things that interest them?

[lynn]

My very Democrat relative-in-law attended the Iowa caucus when Obama won the primary. Even she said at that time Obama was just an empty suit. And that from a Democrat before he completely proved how empty he was and is. Hopefully we only have him for two more years and he can do whatever he wants with his Peace Prize when he retires back to Chicago or wherever. (I could tell him what to do with it, but I digress.)

[Donald Pay]

I think multi-national corporations, particularly the oil interests, are driving US policy. I don't think anyone in the upper reaches of either the Republican or Democratic regimes in this country really gives a rats ass about democracy as long as some US corporation can make a buck off a fascist or authoritarian regime. Bush cleared Libya of sanctions in 2004. Immediately Halliburton and other companies rushed in. With all the money US corporations were handing over to Libya, they were able to buy mercenaries to put down the popular uprising. Just months before this latest dust up, Obama was preparing to ok the sale of troop carriers to Libya

The only way we are going to stop this nonsense is to destroy the multi-national corporate elite, re-institute real democracy in the Western world, and get the hell off fossil fuels.

[Ken Blanchard]

Donald and Larry: Bush isn't President. Obama is President.

Donald: you have been a valuable member of this blog's community. I appreciate it. You are always entitled to complain. I do think that my posts on the Libyan War were substantial. I backed them up with references to the New York Times and other liberal sources.

Eugene Robinson, for heaven's sake, asks the same questions I am asking. "Is it just me? Am I the only one who's utterly confused about the rationale, goals, tactics and strategy of the U.S.-led military intervention in Libya?" No, Eugene, it isn't just you. It is pretty much everyone except Donald Pay.