VFP statement on Military Intervention in Libya

[EFerrari]

VFP Statement on Military Intervention in Libya
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2011-04-21 10:23

* Libya

“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.” -Senator Barack Obama, 2007

On March 19, 2011, the President, without Congressional approval, ordered the attack on multiple targets in Libya. Under the guise of enforcing a “no-fly zone” the United States launched over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles and flew over 113 sorties. At a cost of $1,066,465 per missile that amounts to $117,311,150 for just the munitions, not to mention the fuel and operating costs for the ships and planes used in the attacks. A USAF F-15E Strike Eagle was also lost in the conflict at a cost of $31.1 million. There was also the unseen cost of the aircraft used in the rescue mission and an unknown number of civilians injured.

From 1979 to 1989, the United States Central Intelligence Agency conducted Operation Cyclone, the largest and most expensive CIA operation in its history. Hailed as a great success, Operation Cyclone successfully led to the unseating of the USSR supported People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Operation Cyclone exploited fundamentalist Islam to motivate a group which became known as the Mujahedeen, funding and arming them to push the PDPA and the Soviet Union out militarily. Members of the Mujahedeen included Osama Bin Laden, and many other global figures in the group we now refer to as Al Qaeda.

Operation Cyclone, aside from being almost entirely covert, bears a striking resemblance to the current US operation wherein a sectarian and rather brutal totalitarian regime is being overthrown with US support by exploiting Islamic fundamentalists. While we know little about the rebels the US is aiding, we do know that many have fought against the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US has a long history of fomenting the overthrow of governments not supporting our financial interest. That history also shows repeated violent backlash against the US both by those supported, and those who have been overthrown.

more:

http://warisacrime.org/content/vfp-statement-military-intervention-libya

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Now, about that deficit....how about we cut some education spending to cover the war?

Or, Medicare? Social Security?

[EFerrari]

2. Remember how we reviled BushCo for its unfunded war in Iraq?

That was us, right?

[EFerrari]

3. An article on the cost of patrolling the empire $2 billion a day.

The Real Cost Of U.S. In Libya? Two Billion Dollars Per Day.
Posted by Loren Thompson
Forbes
Mar 28 2011

The one thing most experts seem to agree on about the current coalition air campaign in Libya is that it won’t cost much. A leading think tank estimated the price-tag for patrolling Libyan air space at $30-100 million per week, while the Navy’s top budget official described Libyan air operations as falling within the “normal operating cycle” of his department. Rear Admiral Joseph Mulloy told trade publication Inside the Navy on March 21, “The incremental cost of use of the Navy and Marine Corps is low, because we’re already funded and we are trained and worked up.” He went on, “We don’t have to pay extra to be there.” As a result of such fiscal reassurances, Congress has focused mainly on the goals of the operation and what precedents military action might create, rather than the cost.

However, at a time when the federal government is borrowing about $4 billion per day from lenders like China, it might be worthwhile to focus some thought on what Admiral Mulloy was really saying. He didn’t say Libya was cheap, he said most of the bill had already been paid. And therein lies the crux of a fiscal dilemma that politicians and policymakers will face as they struggle to reduce the biggest budget deficit in the history of the world. Can America continue to sustain the kind of global military posture that enables it to simultaneously execute a no-fly zone in Libya, a counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan, disaster relief in Japan, and a host of other operations from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf to the Horn of Africa? While its European allies seem hard-pressed to cope with a modest military challenge on their own doorstep, America has embraced a global role that requires its forces to be pretty much everywhere there is a threat of instability. So what looks like an inexpensive military operation in Libya is actually costing taxpayers about $2 billion per day, because that’s what the Pentagon and other security agencies of the federal government spend to maintain a posture that allows the military to go anywhere and do anything on short notice.

There is good reason to believe that posture is no longer affordable — or more precisely, that the public is no longer willing to afford it. When the new millennium began barely ten years ago, the United States was generating roughly a third of global economic output and also sustaining about a third of worldwide military spending. Since that time, though, the two measures of power have diverged dramatically, and so today America only produces about a quarter of output while trying to sustain nearly half of military spending (over $700 billion in a global total of $1.6 trillion). In other words, five percent of the world’s population is trying to cover fifty percent of the world’s military bills with only a quarter of the world’s wealth. That’s the sort of equation that might make sense in a national emergency, but it looks untenable as a long-term proposition. Yet Pentagon policymakers say they can’t make ends meet for much less money, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted last year that when it comes to deficit reduction, “we are not the problem” — even though his department consumes a fifth of the federal budget and has seen its buying power grow by three-quarters over the past ten years.

http://blogs.forbes.com/beltway/2011/03/28/the-real-cost-of-u-s-in-libya-two-billion-dollars-per-day/

[EFerrari]

4. Reuters: Obama approves using drones in Libya.

http://twitter.com/#!/Reuters/status/61144889764741120

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. When stuck in hole keep digging..or, use drones.

Isn't that just grand? Give the war to the CIA to run.

They're capacity for stupid is bottomless. Not only have they taken sides in civil war but brought in a bunch of notorious killers which are about as popular as a turd in a salad to run it. And, in a brilliant stroke of PR, advertise it.

Now, I'm waiting for the re-branding. "Operation Shock and Awe II"?