Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Obama and the Pentagon Plan Massive Military Escalation and the Media
Barely Seem to Care
________________________________________
Obama and the Pentagon Plan Massive Military Escalation and the Media Barely
Seem to Care
By Adam Johnson [1] / AlterNet [2]
January 27, 2016
Almost five years after the United States and its NATO allies launched a
campaign in Libya to overthrow Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the United States is
on the verge of massively escalating its military operations in the war-torn
country. According [3] to the New York Times, the new effort is "expected to
include airstrikes and raids by elite American troops." It is unclear how
long this newest effort will last.
The announcement comes on the heels of U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter
announcing combat troops were going back to Iraq last week [4]. While U.S
special forces have been conducting "clandestine reconnaissance missions in
Libya to identify militant leaders and map out their networks" over the past
year, the New York Times report marks the first time overt combat troops
will be deployed in the North African nation.
The 2011 campaign was itself something of a bait and switch. What was
originally sold as simply a no-fly zone quickly became regime change. A few
weeks after the UN-sanctioned bombing of Libya's infrastructure and air
capacity, the scope of the campaign pivoted when President Obama, along with
Presidents Sarkozy and Cameron of France and the UK respectively, announced
the entirely new objective [5]: NATO airstrikes, in concert with ongoing CIA
support of rebels, to overthrow the Qaddafi government.
After this was quickly achieved, the pundit classes rallied to congratulate
a job well done. As Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept noted Wednesday [6]:
War advocates such as Anne-Marie Slaughter [7] and Nicholas Kristof [8] were
writing columns celebrating their prescience and mocking war opponents as
discredited, and the New York Times published a front-page article [9]
declaring: "U.S. Tactics in Libya May be a Model for Other Efforts."
It was widely expected that Hillary Clinton, one of the leading advocates
for and architects of the bombing campaign, would be regarded as a Foreign
Policy Visionary for the grand Libya success: "We came, we saw, he died,"
Clinton sociopathically boasted [10] about the mob rape and murder of
Qaddafi [11] while guffawing on 60 Minutes.
Despite the fanfare at the "overthrow" of Qaddafi (who suffered a brutal
death [11] at the hands of a mob), not much has been made of the U.S.
military's slow escalation of its involvement in Libya over the past year.
This time the objective, much like in Iraq after the U.S. deposed its
leader, is destroying the presence of ISIS, a process that could take, in
the words [12] of former Defense Secretary Panetta, "thirty years." And it's
an escalation that has largely gone under the public's radar.
Slowly trickling wars are a common feature in U.S. policy. The latest war in
Iraq against ISIS was originally sold as "limited," "humanitarian"
airstrikes [13] to save the Yezidi trapped on a mountain from ISIS, and it
has now gone on for over a year and a half, spans two countries, and soon
will include "boots on the ground." All this with neither the corporate
media nor Congress, which hasn't yet brought military authorization to a
vote, paying much attention.
This new level of indifference on the part of the public about what is an
ISIS war spiraling into a massive global effort has even bothered the
normally hawkish Times. In the context of Libya, it wrote [3]:
This significant escalation is being planned without a meaningful debate in
Congress about the merits and risks of a military campaign that is expected
to include airstrikes and raids by elite American troops.
That is deeply troubling. A new military intervention in Libya would
represent a significant progression of a war that could easily spread to
other countries on the continent. It is being planned as the American
military burrows more deeply into battlegrounds in Syria and Iraq, where
American ground troops are being asked to play an increasingly hands-on role
in the fight.
It's always difficult to tell if public indifference is what leads to a
media blackout or the other way around, but the Times is correct that a
broad public discussion about the wisdom of committing to potentially
decades-long military efforts is disturbingly absent.
When the U.S. began its anti-ISIL efforts in August 2014, ISIL was in two
countries. Now, after tens of thousands of aerial ordinances have been
dropped on two continents, ISIS now has a presence in over 20 countries
[14]. The U.S. has even expanded its war in Afghanistan [15] to include
ISIS, the White House announced last Thursday. None of the major
presidential candidates, including the most progressive member of the U.S.
Congress, Bernie Sanders, outwardly opposes the U.S.' current anti-ISIL
efforts, including the once-unpopular drone program.
Over the past two weeks, the Defense Department and the Obama administration
have been peppering the media with their plans to massively increase the war
effort in Libya as well as Iraq, Afghanistan and potentially elsewhere. All
the evidence points to the fact that war-makers in Washington and Brussels
are gearing up for a major effort that could very well last a long time. The
question is, will we ever have a public debate about it?
Adam Johnson is an associate editor at AlterNet. Follow him on Twitter at
@adamjohnsonnyc [16].
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [17]
[18]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/obama-and-pentagon-plan-massive-mi
litary-escalation-and-media-barely-seem-care
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/adam-johnson-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/opinion/opening-a-new-front-against-isis-i
n-libya.html?_r=0
[4]
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/us-put-boots-ground-iraq-combat-is
il
[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/opinion/15iht-edlibya15.html
[6]
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/27/the-u-s-intervention-in-libya-was-such-a
-smashing-success-that-a-sequel-is-coming/
[7]
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/18cb7f14-ce3c-11e0-99ec-00144feabdc0,Authorised
=false.html?siteedition=intl&_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2
Fs%2F0%2F18cb7f14-ce3c-11e0-99ec-00144feabdc0.html%3Fsiteedition%3Dintl&
_i_referer=&classification=conditional_standard&iab=barrier-app#axzz
3IkzBJYTa
[8]
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/opinion/kristof-from-libyans-thank-you-ame
rica.html
[9]
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/africa/29diplo.html?pagewanted=all
[10] http://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton-on-qaddafi-we-came-we-saw-he-died/
[11]
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/globalpost-qaddafi-apparently-sodomized-after-ca
pture/
[12]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/06/leon-panetta-memoir-w
orthy-fights/16737615/
[13]
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/obama-weighs-military-str
ikes-to-aid-trapped-iraqis-officials-say.html
[14]
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/17/world/mapping-isis-attacks-around-the-world/
[15]
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/21/us-loosens-rules-engagement-for-i
sis-in-afghanistan.html
[16] https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonnyc
[17] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Obama and the Pentagon
Plan Massive Military Escalation and the Media Barely Seem to Care
[18] http://www.alternet.org/
[19] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Obama and the Pentagon Plan Massive Military Escalation and the Media
Barely Seem to Care
Obama and the Pentagon Plan Massive Military Escalation and the Media Barely
Seem to Care
By Adam Johnson [1] / AlterNet [2]
January 27, 2016
Almost five years after the United States and its NATO allies launched a
campaign in Libya to overthrow Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the United States is
on the verge of massively escalating its military operations in the war-torn
country. According [3] to the New York Times, the new effort is "expected to
include airstrikes and raids by elite American troops." It is unclear how
long this newest effort will last.
The announcement comes on the heels of U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter
announcing combat troops were going back to Iraq last week [4]. While U.S
special forces have been conducting "clandestine reconnaissance missions in
Libya to identify militant leaders and map out their networks" over the past
year, the New York Times report marks the first time overt combat troops
will be deployed in the North African nation.
The 2011 campaign was itself something of a bait and switch. What was
originally sold as simply a no-fly zone quickly became regime change. A few
weeks after the UN-sanctioned bombing of Libya's infrastructure and air
capacity, the scope of the campaign pivoted when President Obama, along with
Presidents Sarkozy and Cameron of France and the UK respectively, announced
the entirely new objective [5]: NATO airstrikes, in concert with ongoing CIA
support of rebels, to overthrow the Qaddafi government.
After this was quickly achieved, the pundit classes rallied to congratulate
a job well done. As Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept noted Wednesday [6]:
War advocates such as Anne-Marie Slaughter [7] and Nicholas Kristof [8] were
writing columns celebrating their prescience and mocking war opponents as
discredited, and the New York Times published a front-page article [9]
declaring: "U.S. Tactics in Libya May be a Model for Other Efforts."
It was widely expected that Hillary Clinton, one of the leading advocates
for and architects of the bombing campaign, would be regarded as a Foreign
Policy Visionary for the grand Libya success: "We came, we saw, he died,"
Clinton sociopathically boasted [10] about the mob rape and murder of
Qaddafi [11] while guffawing on 60 Minutes.
Despite the fanfare at the "overthrow" of Qaddafi (who suffered a brutal
death [11] at the hands of a mob), not much has been made of the U.S.
military's slow escalation of its involvement in Libya over the past year.
This time the objective, much like in Iraq after the U.S. deposed its
leader, is destroying the presence of ISIS, a process that could take, in
the words [12] of former Defense Secretary Panetta, "thirty years." And it's
an escalation that has largely gone under the public's radar.
Slowly trickling wars are a common feature in U.S. policy. The latest war in
Iraq against ISIS was originally sold as "limited," "humanitarian"
airstrikes [13] to save the Yezidi trapped on a mountain from ISIS, and it
has now gone on for over a year and a half, spans two countries, and soon
will include "boots on the ground." All this with neither the corporate
media nor Congress, which hasn't yet brought military authorization to a
vote, paying much attention.
This new level of indifference on the part of the public about what is an
ISIS war spiraling into a massive global effort has even bothered the
normally hawkish Times. In the context of Libya, it wrote [3]:
This significant escalation is being planned without a meaningful debate in
Congress about the merits and risks of a military campaign that is expected
to include airstrikes and raids by elite American troops.
That is deeply troubling. A new military intervention in Libya would
represent a significant progression of a war that could easily spread to
other countries on the continent. It is being planned as the American
military burrows more deeply into battlegrounds in Syria and Iraq, where
American ground troops are being asked to play an increasingly hands-on role
in the fight.
It's always difficult to tell if public indifference is what leads to a
media blackout or the other way around, but the Times is correct that a
broad public discussion about the wisdom of committing to potentially
decades-long military efforts is disturbingly absent.
When the U.S. began its anti-ISIL efforts in August 2014, ISIL was in two
countries. Now, after tens of thousands of aerial ordinances have been
dropped on two continents, ISIS now has a presence in over 20 countries
[14]. The U.S. has even expanded its war in Afghanistan [15] to include
ISIS, the White House announced last Thursday. None of the major
presidential candidates, including the most progressive member of the U.S.
Congress, Bernie Sanders, outwardly opposes the U.S.' current anti-ISIL
efforts, including the once-unpopular drone program.
Over the past two weeks, the Defense Department and the Obama administration
have been peppering the media with their plans to massively increase the war
effort in Libya as well as Iraq, Afghanistan and potentially elsewhere. All
the evidence points to the fact that war-makers in Washington and Brussels
are gearing up for a major effort that could very well last a long time. The
question is, will we ever have a public debate about it?
Adam Johnson is an associate editor at AlterNet. Follow him on Twitter at
@adamjohnsonnyc [16].
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [17]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[18]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/obama-and-pentagon-plan-massive-mi
litary-escalation-and-media-barely-seem-care
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/adam-johnson-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/opinion/opening-a-new-front-against-isis-i
n-libya.html?_r=0
[4]
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/us-put-boots-ground-iraq-combat-is
il
[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/opinion/15iht-edlibya15.html
[6]
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/27/the-u-s-intervention-in-libya-was-such-a
-smashing-success-that-a-sequel-is-coming/
[7]
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/18cb7f14-ce3c-11e0-99ec-00144feabdc0,Authorised
=false.html?siteedition=intl&_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2
Fs%2F0%2F18cb7f14-ce3c-11e0-99ec-00144feabdc0.html%3Fsiteedition%3Dintl&
_i_referer=&classification=conditional_standard&iab=barrier-app#axzz
3IkzBJYTa
[8]
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/opinion/kristof-from-libyans-thank-you-ame
rica.html
[9]
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/africa/29diplo.html?pagewanted=all
[10] http://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton-on-qaddafi-we-came-we-saw-he-died/
[11]
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/globalpost-qaddafi-apparently-sodomized-after-ca
pture/
[12]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/06/leon-panetta-memoir-w
orthy-fights/16737615/
[13]
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/obama-weighs-military-str
ikes-to-aid-trapped-iraqis-officials-say.html
[14]
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/17/world/mapping-isis-attacks-around-the-world/
[15]
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/21/us-loosens-rules-engagement-for-i
sis-in-afghanistan.html
[16] https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonnyc
[17] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Obama and the Pentagon
Plan Massive Military Escalation and the Media Barely Seem to Care
[18] http://www.alternet.org/
[19] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
