i think he belongs to a branch of the cia. and i believe there is a conflict, near war, between them.

Posted by: an idiot | Oct 7 2011 15:14 utc | 4

“yesterday, when a squad of the Belhadj lead Tripoli Military Counsel aka LIFG made a failed attempt to assassinate Mahmud Jibril. Jibril survived the attempt unharmed, but seven of his body guards were killed.”
“In Bengazi 140 fighters of Al Qaeda factions were killed as a revenge for the murder of General Younis, and after tribal elders recently received video evidence of 200 other murders committed by Al Qaeda Commandos in Bengazi.”
http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/muammar-ghadafi-addresses-libyans-and-world-as-liberation-gains-momentum/

Posted by: nikon | Oct 7 2011 17:47 utc | 6

I agree that Obama is by no means an expert in foreign policy. What politician is? Their main skill has to be in winning elections. The elder Bush is a good example. He was good on foreign policy, but lost the (second) election.
I know you will complain that I have admired Bush senior. But personally I thought his handling of the Kuwait crisis was excellent. Nobody could accept what Saddam did by invading Kuwait. It was (and still is, though much damaged now) a principle that small states invaded have to be defended. At least they stopped at Nasiriyya, and didn’t go on to Baghdad. All those principles have gone now, drones fly over every country in sight, murdering anybody. That is a product of Bush the younger.
Myself, I think that Obama is intelligent, but not strong. He should have risked not being re-elected, in order to put America on the right path.
Not only a question of foreign policy, he could have led in relation to the banksters.
Frankly the US needs someone who who is ready to say, f**k the second term, I will do what America needs.

Posted by: alexno | Oct 7 2011 20:37 utc | 8

Lysander,
Gandhi noted that one of the first steps to independence for India was to get educated indians to stop believing that England was the god guy.
Bush the younger has done a lot to dispell the US=good guys in the rest of the world, so maybe we will see the US empire go the way of the british.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Oct 7 2011 23:02 utc | 10

“… There are good guy countries that try to lend some minor assistance. And there are bad guy countries that are hindering progress fir reasons that are either selfish or just irrational.
“It’s that simple. I’m astonished at how many people think along those lines. And I’m talking about highly educated, presumably intelligent, people such as physicians. I talk to them everyday. They really do think like that…”
Which makes the islamophobic meme so crucial. It is no coincidence that hand in hand with neo-imperialism (recreating the very worst of the old with up to date weapons) is the silly atheism of people like Hitchens. Establishing that enemies of the US are brainwashed fanatics, with queer beliefs in fairies and a Paradise with houris, is very useful when you are trying to persuade the domestic electorate that, for example, 9/11 was not chickens coming home to roost but utterly irrational, unpredictable and unprovoked.
The sneering anti-clericalism of the French imperialist differs very little from the pompous evangelical Christianity of Colonel Blimp: both are engaged in rape, plunder and hypocrisy.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 7 2011 23:09 utc | 12

@ Lysander
In comments that are meant to resonate with as many people as possible, candidate Romney said this on PBS

MITT ROMNEY: You know, I think throughout our history we have recognized that as a nation which has identified from its very beginning certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of the happiness, and a sense that freedom is a universal value – that America has taken on the responsibility to provide for freedom and prosperity for ourselves and we share that with the world. America is a unique and exceptional nation. And the idea that America would allow other nations to get larger and stronger and potentially balance us, that would be, in my opinion, a mistake.
There’s going to be some nation that will lead the world, and it will either be America or it will be someone else. And the someone else right now would probably be the jihadists, China, a resurgent Russia. In my view, the world would be a very different place if America did not fulfill the responsibility of carrying the torch of liberty.

and that is the way it is for so many people. and not just people from the US think this way, most if not all citizens feel the same way about their own country.

Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 8 2011 12:14 utc | 14

somebody, the russian intelligence are closely watching what is happening in libya.

Posted by: nikon | Oct 8 2011 21:45 utc | 16

oh, nikon,do you really think Russian intelligence is beyond spreading rumours, sorry, fantasies?

Posted by: somebody | Oct 8 2011 22:38 utc | 18

In the rarified air of the top, and the endless connections with the powerful, today, both common sense and any thoughts about justice, in whatever shape, are blanked out.
That said, Obama is actually ignorant, in the sense that he has no understanding of any underlying issues, none at all (I have followed his stance and doings on education, it is abysmal and flippant, he does not know, does not care, and won’t be bothered to find out, he could have made super gains there easily, nor would it have ‘cost’, and I don’t state that from any kind of partisan position) – one exception might be Palestine where he grasps more or less what is going but caves.
He is just a lackey for the powerful, he is bored, BORED, by any real issues. Servant supreme. Which leads to easy sadism, flaunting power, more Patriot Act type legislation, death panels (not for aged diabetics but anyone he thinks might be a good PR dead body), and so on. BTW, Obama disdains women and he hates blacks, men especially, and all minorities. (imho)
He is a hollow man, an empty man, a striver for something he doesn’t even capt. A puppet in a suit, a dancer for the media, a smooth liar, and he even doesn’t enjoy appearing cool on TV. He will blindly follow his ‘betters’ – white men who control more money than he does. Killing Yemenis or what not is not even a thrill, or an accomplishment, or necessary evil, it is just the thing to do. Foreign policy – these are words that have no meaning for him.
George Bush was a more genuine president. (Disastrous, but that is another story.)

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 9 2011 17:38 utc | 20

Romney: “America is a unique and exceptional nation.
Howard Zinn on exceptionalism.

Posted by: catlady | Oct 10 2011 1:25 utc | 22