{"id":4438,"date":"2011-03-29T05:05:09","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T12:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4438"},"modified":"2011-03-29T05:05:09","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T12:05:09","slug":"obamas-libya-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/29\/obamas-libya-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s Libya Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night Barack Obama gave a speech on the US involvement in the Libyan conflict.  The speech had good and bad points.  To bring you up to to date, here is the complete video of the speech, a link to the text, excerpts from two articles, two additional videos, including one of Republicans making fools of themselves, and some commentary.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"29libya-speech\"<\/p>\n

President Obama defended the American-led military assault in Libya on Monday, saying it was in the national interest of the United States to stop a potential massacre that would have \u201cstained the conscience of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first major address since ordering American airstrikes on the forces and artillery of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi nine days ago, Mr. Obama emphasized that the United States’s role in the assault would be limited, but said that America had the responsibility and the international backing to stop what he characterized as a looming genocide in the Libyan city of Benghazi. <\/p>\n

\u201cI refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action,\u201d Mr. Obama said\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

Here is the complete speech.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

If you prefer, read the text here<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

Immediately following the speech, Lawrence O\u2019Donnell interviewed Rachel Maddow about the speech.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

I agree that Obama\u2019s weakest link is his failure to adequately consult with Congress. However, he did consult with the leadership of both parties in both the Senate and the House.  I am certain that, had there been any objections at all, we would have heard about it by now.<\/font><\/p>\n

I do accept Obama\u2019s explanation about the humanitarian need for intervention.  Kaddafi not only promised violence against civilians, he has a history of extreme right-wing behavior.  I am convinced the threat was real, because he even equipped his troops with condoms and Viagra to assist in the rape of women in rebel areas.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"29libya-rape\"Walking through the corridors of the El-Mgareaf hospital, Dr Suleiman Refadi went from sadness, to boiling fury, to unhindered joy in the space of just half an hour.<\/p>\n

The general surgeon had stayed holed up in the hospital in east Ajdabiya for the six days Gaddafi’s forces spent in his city after retaking control last week. He and a number of his staff risked being shot by snipers in the city or being arrested and taken away like so many others during this time.<\/p>\n

Three of his doctors had disappeared on their way to pick up injured civilians just two streets away from the hospital<\/strong>. Only their shot up ambulance was found.<\/p>\n

The surgeon told me about the women he had treated who said they had been raped by government soldiers<\/strong>. One woman was snatched from outside her home as she called for her child to come indoors. Another was inside her own house near the west gate to the city when soldiers broke in and raped her.<\/p>\n

His sadness turned to bewilderment when the doctor described how he believed this rape<\/a> was very much pre-meditated. He described how he had personally searched the bodies of Gaddafi troops that were brought into the hospital morgue: "When they bring the cadavers to the hospital I search their pockets. I have seen Viagra and I have seen condoms."<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

This, he ascertained, was because they had been instructed to rape\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Common Dreams<\/a>><\/p>\n

I do believe that, had we not intervened, there would have been a horrific massacre.<\/font><\/p>\n

There is no humor in war, but it\u2019s hard not to laugh at Republicans performing a double-reverse goose-step to redefine their positions.  Rachel Maddow exposed them with Chris Hayes.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

In conclusion, I still hate war, but I had to ask myself one question.  How often do we see the commitment of US forces to protect rebels, who want self-determination, from an autocrat?  In Iraq Bush tried to install Chalabi as his puppet and failed.  In Afghanistan he installed Karzai as his puppet.  Historically, when US forces have been used, it has usually been to protect autocrats from rebels, who wanted self-determination.  If we are going to fight, I prefer the former.  Also, we should not forget that the US Senate voted unanimously in favor of establishing a no fly zone in Libya, and the Senator, who, among others, introduced that resolution, was Bernie Sanders.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night Barack Obama gave a speech on the US involvement in the Libyan conflict.  The speech had good and bad points.  To bring you up to to date, here is the complete video of the speech, a link to the text, excerpts from two articles, two additional videos, including one of Republicans making fools […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monthly-report","category-open-thread","category-45-id","category-35-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}