In case you missed this amid yesterday’s debt ceiling clamor, outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen admitted that the “kinetic military action” in Libya is “generally in a stalemate.”
Right now you might be wondering, how did the world’s most formidable military power wind up in a stalemate with a Third-world tinpot dictator? I think the answer is pretty simple. We don’t belong, militarily, in Libya, period. President Obama knows this, which is why he is prosecuting this war illegally, without consent of Congress. And it’s also why we’re “leading from behind” with respect to this operation. President Obama is neither confident nor decisive enough to order the kind of true full scale military operation that could end this stalemate quickly and decisively. But he also knows that pulling out would effectively make America the loser in this conflict, and Barack Obama would never willfully do anything to diminish his chances of re-election.
So for the time being, we appear to be stuck in an illegal quagmire in Libya. Too bad it can’t be blamed on George W. Bush.
