WASHINGTON — Two top senators on Tuesday unveiled a resolution giving President Barack Obama limited authority in the three-month-old war against Libya, warning that the drastic step of cutting off funds for the military operation would be a lifeline to a weakened Moammar Gadhafi.Read the rest here.
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and John McCain of Arizona, the leading Republican on the Armed Services Committee, introduced the bipartisan resolution that would allow the mission to continue but would impose a one-year limit on the NATO-led operation, a period McCain said is "more than enough time to finish the job." It also would prohibit American ground forces in Libya.
The measure is a clear counter to efforts in the House to prohibit spending and effectively end the operation, a reflection of the growing Republican and Democratic anger toward Obama and his treatment of Congress. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said lawmakers will consider measures to cut off funds.
"Our members are very frustrated over the president's actions, his lack of positing a clear mission and vision for our involvement in Libya," Cantor told reporters. "Members have not seen the reasons why or why not the president thinks we're involved in hostilities."
Don't worry. This will end soon enough. The Empire is broke and its military is overextended. Contrary to popular opinion the United States is not immune to the basic laws of both economics and geo-politics. We are not God's chosen nation. We are, like most great empires, an accident of history. And just like those that went before us we are bleeping it up.
If we are lucky our demotion to the status of a 2nd rate power will not be too painful. But I would not lay odds on that.
10 comments:
This is what I've been saying and I feel like no one is listening. The right is concerned about one thing -- corporate profits -- and they will do anything to further that. The left is too quiet and too morally conflicted about so much to be of any help.
We are absolutely without a doubt frakked beyond belief. Anyone who doesn't see the next few years as the end of Empire is smoking something I'd like a hit of.
All the signs (economic, social, political, spiritual, etc.) have been telling me that the US is on a downward slope that may continue for many more years. I don't think an evangelical "revival" will do the trick this time, either. The country has squandered its gifts and now it's time to pay the piper, as it were. I love my country and don't wish to see its people suffer, but I am not blind either. I have already left the country with my family and will be watching the collapse from afar. We have moved in with the in-laws to consolidate families and resources, bracing for what may become a rough ride for the next 10 years or so.
"If we are lucky our demise to the status of a 2nd rate power will not be too painful."
Er...I hope you mean "demotion."
demise = demotion Yes. That's what I meant. Fixing it now.
I think the US will still be the leading military power in the world for many more years, until China surpasses us. However, inside the US we are rotting quickly. We will have a powerful military defending a collapsing nation. Our priorities have been so wrong for so long. Instead of building up our society, jobs and infrastructure, we've focused on feeding the military-industrial complex up to the point that we have a lop-sided economy. Eisenhower warned us of this in 1961. It's not unlike what happened to the Soviet Union, honestly.
Don't worry. This will end soon enough.
I disagree; for me it can't end soon enough. "Soon enough" would have been dissolving NATO and bringing our troops home from Europe and Korea as soon as the Wall came down and the Soviet Union fell apart. "Soon enough" would have been never getting involved in Iraq in the first place, and not taking sides in the Iran/Iraq war.* I could go on, but you get the idea.
To be fair, I didn't advocate those positions at the time. My views have changed a lot. I still consider myself a conservative, but I define "conservative" quite a bit differently than I used to.
* Come to think of it, a good geostrategic rule of thumb would be, never have anything to do with countries whose name begins with "I". I'd be sorry to lose Italy, but all in all, it would be a good trade.
This thread makes me very sad. I love my country, and I think it occupies a unique place in the history of mankind. While true that "here we have no continuing city" I grew up in the strongest and most free country -- with all its many faults and failings -- that has ever existed. Its decline grieves me greatly.
And I disagree that "the right" is about corporate profits; the people I know on "the right" are for the most part working class, middle class, small business owners and professionals like doctors and dentists. The people who make the wheels go around, in other words.
LV, bless your heart. The people on the "right" may be well-intentioned working class, etc., but they are consistently voting against their best interest and the interest of this nation. The GOP is selling a bill of goods that will ultimately lead to our destruction. Loving this country means seeing her as she is. And as she is a poor nation full of a growing-poorer people with an overextended military and a government that bends to the whims of a few.
There will be no turning this around. We are no better than any other over-extended and greedy empire that has graced this planet in centuries past. If we are fortunate, and I pray we will be, our demise/decline will be tempered by a few courageous leaders who can pull back reasonably, put some money back into our own coffers and enable us to get back in the business of being Americans, rather than just getting back to business.
Well said, rsgreen. However, the contempt and duplicity with which the GOP regard the American working class is mirrored by the Democrats.
Ah yes, but the Dems seem to be less aggressive about it.
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