See?
I hate to weigh in on military strategy, because that makes me sound sort of like all those other yahoos, armchair generals and know-it-all old geezers who make those kind of comments, but there does seem to be a great deal of debate about Libya and I would be remiss if I didn’t offer my sure-fire, fool proof plan for a successful resolution to the situation.
I call it the Somalia Solution, because I first thought of it during the Somalia crisis, although come to think of it the Libyan situation is about the opposite…O.K., I’m rambling. Anyway, I noticed when the marines landed in Somalia, there were reporters there waiting for them on the beach, it was a comical case of no resistance, and I thought “why not just set up base right there, make it a true humanitarian effort, pour in food and medicine, build a couple of hospitals and schools, invite in all the unarmed civilians who could make their way there, and forget about Mogadishu.”
We didn’t need to take Mogadishu. We could have built a new capital city for Somalia, much better than the old one, and nobody needed to die.
Well, the goal in Libya is different, it is specifically to get rid of Gaddafi (or Kazzafi, as my Iranian students tell me it should be spelled – so much fun with that name.) As narrow and mean spirited as that may be, it’s all Obama has committed to and if he could accomplish that, he could call it a success and be done with it.
No need to worry about the oil. Whoever comes out on top, they will be willing to sell us oil. It’s not worth anything if you’re not going to sell it to somebody.
So whereas in Somalia the proper solution would have been to say “Fuck Mogadishu,” the proper solution in Libya is to say “Fuck the rest of the country.” If we take Tripoli, we take down Gaddafi and then we can pick up our marbles and go home.
Of course, an assault on Tripoli would get a whole lot of people killed, and that would be a good thing to avoid. Urban warfare is nasty.
But an assault is unnecessary. Tripoli is a seaport, surrounded on the other 3 sides by desert. It is a stark, simplistic geography. A naval blockade and siege would be perfectly adequate. Separate Gaddafi from the rest of the country. The army that’s attacking Misrata and Ben Ghazi would soon stop fighting if they weren’t getting their paychecks, or anything at all, from their besieged leadership.
If there is a flaw in this plan, feel free to point it out in the comments.
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