Bin Recommended Reading al-Libya
Top Billing! Sic Semper Tyrannis-#Libya – De Opresso Liber
What to Do:
I’m certain there are SFODAs (SF Operational Detachment Alpha) that have planned and trained for employment in Libya to support guerilla operations. But given our decade long preoccupation with Iraq and Afghanistan, those teams may not be immediately available or not immediately ready to move into Libya. On the other hand, I’m sure there are teams with Arabic and desert training ready to go in the 3rd, 5th or 10th Groups. The headquarters for the operation would probably be in Stuttgart, Germany where EUCOM, AFRICOM and, conveniently enough, 1st Battalion, 10th SFGA are located. An assessment/ command team should be immediately inserted into Benghazi to make contact with the Libyan resistance. In a previous post I alluded to the difficulty and criticality of this initial contact. How this team will be received is unknown. However, I am getting the impression that the resistance forces initial euphoria is being tempered by the realization that they have a difficult struggle ahead of them. This assessment team will serve as liaison to the resistance leadership and a command element to the SFODAs to follow. The assessment team will determine the size, abilities and needs of the resistance fighting forces and relay this information to Stuttgart so the SFODAs can properly prepare for their insertion. The ODAs will be in isolation intensively preparing for their insertion and mission execution. ….
Great Satan’s Girlfriend –Arab League To The Rescue?
‘Aqoul –The Full Q. Rebound, & Support
Austin Bay –Blunting Gadhafi’s Air Power Advantage
The Arabist –Libya dispatch: Momentum
Abu Muqawama – For Intervention in Libya: Two Views and The Rebels Love Us, Right?
Thomas P.M. Barnett –WPR’s The New Rules: Obama Abdicating U.S. Leadership in Libya
SWJ Blog (Frank Hoffman) – Wrong War, Wrong Policy, or Wrong Tactics?
…The Long War against extremism has spawned an explosion in books on global terrorism and America’s interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. While Operation Enduring Freedom was the first counter-blow, following quickly on the heels of 9/11, it has not garnered as much attention as the larger Iraqi conflict. In contrast, the protracted contest in Mesopotamia generated George Packer’s Assassin’s Gate, Tom Ricks’ superlative Fiasco and The Gamble, and Linda Robinson’s Tell Me How This Ends among others.
Afghanistan has produced some notable exceptions. Sean Naylor’s Not a Good Day to Die topped the field until Sebastian Junger’s War was issued last year. The former was an operational history of the ferocious fight against Al Qaeda in the Shahikot Valley during Operation Anaconda in March 2002. Junger’s micro-epic focused more narrowly on a small unit over a longer period of time in 2008 in the Korengal Valley.
The imbalance in our bookshelves is starting to become rectified, and Bing West’s latest book tops the list. Mr. West, a former Marine, Pentagon policy official and noted author, brings much insight and no small amount of prior experience to this particular subject. During the Vietnam War, he had the opportunity to closely examine creative approaches and political complications of modern conflict. His first book, the renowned The Village, captured the complexity of American efforts to provide local security assistance to a foreign population beleaguered by a fierce conflict.
Swedish Meatballs Confidential(NSFW) –More On The Boundary Break
A little IO milestone.
Recommended Viewing – Again:
March 15th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
I don’t see the problem with taking out the Gadafi regime. Its common sense that if a corrupt dictator is removed, then freedom spontaneously takes root.
Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, all bere witness to this heartening process.
Recent History shows that regime change need not lead to long and costly interventions, as long as our intentions are pure no evil can come of our actions.
So have faith brothers and sisters, Libya oppressed masses stand ready to greet our humble warriors with flowers and rosewater!
March 15th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Well, it isn’t "our" intentions. The Libyans seem to have no shortage of ppl willing to fight Gaddafi and I don’t think we ought to fight their battle for them or be pushed into a "no-fly zone". Europe is rich, let them do it.
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OTOH the current situ is Gaddafi imports help, rebels get zero and that prejudices the outcome. Give them simple arms, some aid and advice, if it is desired. The current stance of the USG being verbally against Gaddafi but doing nothing to prevent him from re-asserting control yields:
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a) Massacres
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b) Gaddafi angry at the West and US and back in the terror business
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c) Arab street thinking we colluded with Gaddafi’s return to power
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d) Libyans sure we colluded with Gaddafi and turning to AQ type Islamism
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What is the upside?
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Not sure why we are using the Franco-British foreign policy strategy for the Spanish Civil War
March 15th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
I think it’s useful to juxtapose Lounsbury’s post with Pat Lang’s. Isn’t the downside risk higher if we impose a no-fly zone and Qaddafi remains in power than if we don’t impose one at all? IMO that’s the sense in Pat Lang’s proposal: send in Special Forces to support the rebels..I remain skeptical of U. S. military involvement in Libya on legal, moral, and prudential grounds. However, I think that if we go in we should go in to win.
March 15th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Unfortunatly they do seem to have a shortage of fighters, a few thousand at the most, and a disorganised rabble at that, intervention at this stage could well be reinforcing failure.
I feel bad for the people involved, but what really recommends them western aid, merely the fact that they oppose Gadafi? Al Quaeda also opposessed Gadafi.
Your ABCD is merely conjecture and is certainly no base for declearing war.
March 15th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Hi joey,
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I am clearly not advocating declaring war and my reply is no more conjectural than your initial comment.
March 15th, 2011 at 8:28 pm
My initial comment was tounge in cheek, and more a jab at the armchair thoerists who seem to be suffering from a terrible case of the memory holes.
I wonder why the French and British are so keen, perhaps there eyeing all those juicy oil contracts and the military equipment they can flog to a new regime, me thinks they have bet on the wrong horse, which is why there so keen on a No Fly zone, within a few days I sure they could force a proper bombing campagain
Was just watching channel 4 news in the UK, looks like The Gadafi government has captured genuine Jihdist (UK national), convinced the UK Journos who questioned him, he’d arrived a month before to fight a jihad against Gadafi, appearently he was a Lybian who had been living and raising cash for Jihadi movements in the UK.
As much as we may dislike the Gadafi regime funnelling money and weapons to people we have no idea about is not responcible behaviour.
Agree the USG stance has fallen between two horses, but hard to see what the alternative was.