“From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli…“

American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in the first round of the largest international military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon said.

[…] In a briefing Saturday afternoon, Vice Adm. William Gortney told reporters that about 110 Tomahawk missiles, fired from American warships and submarines and one British submarine struck 20 air-defense targets around Tripoli, the capital, and the western city of Misurata. He said the strikes were against longer-range air defense missiles as well as early warning radar sites and main command-and-control communication centers.

I’m not arguing for or against a US military intervention in Libya, but if historians want to call this one “Obama’s war,” have at it.

60 replies on “US Launches Air Strikes in Libya”

  1. anybody still here? dude..2011- still the most interesting thing ive heard is when kissenger was on charlie rose maybe 2 weeks ago. talking about the mid-east uprisings, charlie asked him to explain the sustained protests, and kissenger said, so honestly, he had no idea what the fuck was going on. he mumbled something about new communications, which charlie filled in with ‘social networks’, and kissenger just shrugged. something new is fucking actually happening and the younger, globalized, information savvy generation is coming of age.
    2- for this, well, part 2 of 2011 is that did you say no fly zone? sure, while were at it we just nonchalantly precision bombed another government out of power. did you say no fly zone?
    3- liquefaction?

  2. basically, this is not bush, and/or an ideology (neocon) or oil( we had it). this is new territory. this is the fucking internet. this is the theater of a new age. and the more automatic, the more precision, the more Anonymous, that is where it’s heading.
    it’s almost a coin toss if force will be used in your favor at this point, unless you are a right winger whose principal doctrine is Might Makes Right. good luck out there from that which hasn’t changed.

  3. @49:
    >implying you are an oldfag
    >implying that the MQs are firing AGMs at civvies
    >implying that the uprisings in Libya will somehow benefit American energy companies
    >implying implications of implicators implying implications

  5. @56: Dude, have you HEARD how much the Obama Administration is backing away from involvement? They’re going to assist with setting up the NFZ and then they’re getting the hell out and letting France etc. maintain the patrols. Remember, the rebels, the Arab League, and the UN all approved the NFZ but made it clear that there would be no foreign forces on the ground.
    Frankly, I’m skeptical that you’re a combat veteran. Where and when did you serve?

    @57: Were you dropped on your head as a child?

  7. “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
    — Sen. Barack Obama, 12/20/2007.

    Stop defending these assholes like battered housewives.

  8. @59: Branding Barack Obama as a conservative.

    @60: See: UN resolution, Arab League decision to authorize no-fly zone, etc.
    See also: List of countries that have sponsored international terrorism

  9. 61 depends on what passes as conservative these days. crazy? no. retrograde troglodyte flat earther? no. but socially, pragmatically, fiscally, in temper? by my definition, yes.

  10. Wow. The crazy is strong in this thread.

    Clearly The Stranger should consider implementing a (Metafilter like) $10 fee to register to comment.

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