Another Day, More Bombs Away

WHY are we/NATO still conducting bombing raids in Libya? Did we not successfully exercise our Right to Protect? And even help the Libyans achieve our real (but unofficial and thus never strategically sought) goal, the removal of Gaddafi from power?

As one who called for doing something to help the rebels once Benghazi fell, and who said we ought to openly seek Gaddafi’s fall, I’m confused.

And I’m sick of this president and this disgusting media of ours acting as if our warriors are doing nothing over there (or in Iraq, or in Pakistan, or even in Afghanistan), as if everything is on some kind of auto-pilot that makes it fine to refrain from regularly articulating the U.S. policy.

What in the world is the U.S. policy? Was this in Obama’s jobs speech that neither I nor anyone I know bothered with? Was it buried in a press conference? A press release? Did I miss something? Maybe this is a truly irresponsible blog post, since I haven’t done the research to see if the White House has said something somewhere, and if so, he or she who provides the link for us can go to town about my laziness. And I suppose that my recent media diet of conservative blogosphere plus NPR isn’t very sound, but still, this is the way so many foreign policy issues seem these days. Unclear.

UPDATE (Er . . . from a Month Ago):  Well, I got a little less lazy this afternoon, and did find this President Obama speech from August 22 on Libya .  Here are the choice parts given our continuing military actions:

“ . . . We will join with allies and partners to continue the work of safeguarding the people of Libya.  As remaining regime elements menace parts of the country, I’ve directed my team to be in close contact with NATO as well as the United Nations to determine other steps that we can take.  To deal with the humanitarian impact, we’re working to ensure that critical supplies reach those in need . . .

For many months, the TNC has been working with the international community to prepare for a post-Qaddafi Libya.  As those efforts proceed, our diplomats will work with the TNC as they ensure that the institutions of the Libyan state are protected, and we will support them with the assets of the Qaddafi regime that were frozen earlier this year.  Above all, we will call for an inclusive transition that leads to a democratic Libya.

. . . To our friends and allies, the Libyan intervention demonstrates what the international community can achieve when we stand together as one — although the efforts in Libya are not yet over. . . . ”

Cute how the “other steps we can take” are made to sound like they will probably be humanitarian ones, but now we can see that continued bombings were envisioned as likely being among those “other steps.”