Obama promises no "let-up" in offensive in Libya

[Turborama]

Source: AP Via CBS

May 25, 2011 10:14 PM

- Firmly united against Moammar Gadhafi, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron promised a relentless and punishing pummeling of his forces in Libya on Wednesday but also pleaded for patience for an effort with no clear end in sight. Obama ruled out a deadline for ending NATO's military assault, saying only that it would be over "in a timely fashion."

"Gadhafi and his regime need to understand that there will not be a let-up in the pressure that we are applying," the U.S. president said, even as Libyan rebels clashed with mercenaries fighting for Gadhafi and less than a day after NATO intensified its bombardment of the Libyan capital. Britain's leader, hosting a news conference with Obama, said the two agreed on a need to "be turning up the heat in Libya."

The Libyan crisis and the broader Arab uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East will be major topics as Obama, Cameron and leaders of other wealthy nations head to the Group of Eight gathering in the Normandy resort of Deauville, France, for talks that begin Thursday. The world's top economies are scrambling to figure out how to help countries with democratic transitions without being seen as heavy-handed.

For Obama and Cameron, the bullish language on Gadhafi came as the international community has stepped up both the air campaign and diplomatic efforts against him in a bid to break a virtual stalemate between the rebels in the east of Libya and Gadhafi, who maintains a stranglehold on most of the west.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/25/ap/middleeast/main20066280.shtml

[Bonobo]

1. "A matter of days, not weeks." --So how long has it been now.

When does Obama become a liar for this misrepresentation?

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[defendandprotect]

12. Gaddafi has hired mercenaries and continued to re-arm himself thru Chad ...

not familiar with all of the recent particulars but basically the fact that

he was so heavily weaponized and so willing to do harm to his own people is the basic problem.

Some of the recent videos at the Libyan Revolutionary thread covering Gaddafi troops and

giving them an opportunity to say who they are and what they were told the fighting was about

are interesting.

[joshcryer]

15. I predicted 6 months or more from the onset. That's how long it took Ivory Coast.

Most people here ignored the Ivory Coast.

[bvar22]

20. Weren't you on another thread this week INSISTING that the USA...

...was NOT involved in the crisis in Libya in ANY way,
and daring anyone to post evidence that we were?
:shrug:

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[joshcryer]

14. Operation Odyssey Dawn was 12 days. That's days, not weeks.

President Obama is not a liar.

[Aerows]

22. We're still there

And spending money and risking lives. Not sure how you consider that an end to operations, but I guess any war is a good one.

[krabigirl]

31. I can't believe anyone actually believed him in the first place.

[mazzarro]

2. Can the General Assembly of UN revoke this stupid and bad resolution on Libya

which obviously was pushed through with ulterior intentions? It is clear that this has been intended as a means of punishing the Libyan leader rather than the Libyan people's revulsion against him.

[Javaman]

9. Are you kidding?

who do you think is really in charge here?

I just loved the statement by Obama, when he said something along the lines of, "we will not be taking a leadership role in this action".

I laughed so hard at that statement I thought I'd busted a gut.

we are a nation of insufferable fools.

[joshcryer]

18. Unlikely, the US and France have veto power.

Any attempt at that would be folly at best.

[KG]

3. more blessings from the US Church of Redemptive Violence!

:eyes:

[ixion]

4. Obama is in full-blossom as a neocon

I'm sure poppy will invite him out for golf and fishing now.

[rug]

5. "the pressure that we are applying,"

Didn't he say lasrt week the US role is limited? Didn't he say the War Powers Act required no further authorization?

I don''t like liars.

[Javaman]

8. of course it's limited, the only thing is...

the limit was never stated.

[joshcryer]

16. Yes, and he is in no way saying US involvement has or will escalate.

He is merely informing the ignorant that the US will remain in a logistics role for as long as it takes.

[Scottybeamer70]

6. meet the new boss........

well.....you know the rest.

[Bragi]

10. Bomb them into democracy!

Good article on this theme I posted earlier, published today in the Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/996852--walkom-the-libyan-war-that-should-not-have-been?bn=1

[defendandprotect]

11. This revolution would have taken but a month had Gaddafi not been so heavily armed!!!

Keep in mind, US had signed a big contract to deliver arms to Gaddafi!!!

Fortunately, it was a new contract and they hadn't yet delivered on it!!

[joshcryer]

17. Gaddafi bombed the eastern munitions depots in the first 3 days.

He knew what he was in for and could not allow the revolutionaries to rise up.

[defendandprotect]

23. And I didn't know it at the time, but read later that the uprisings were also

in Tripoli -- don't know if they began there or what -- but that Gadaffi had

so many people out watching for anyone saying anything that it just broke the

protests there right away.

Think also that Gaddafi has set a pattern for other dictators to follow --

and presume some will be as violent as he has been against their own people,

especially if they have the weapons.

It must be close to Day 100 now -- ???

I'll catch up with your thread a bit later --

:)

:(

[BlueIris]

13. That is fucked up.

Three wars? Really?

[PurityOfEssence]

19. The most cool, relaxed and casual war you could imagine

He's the Bing Crosby of Conquerers. He's the Perry Como of War. We'll amble on with this for however long it takes for Libya to completely disintegrate and widespread personal tragedy forces the issue.

The coolest guy in the room; unfortunately, though, it's the War Room.

[bvar22]

24. +1

Well said.
:patriot:

[Hotler]

25. +2 n/t

[krabigirl]

26. Wow. Just wow.

Is this all just a bad dream?

[reorg]

27. after 2,700 air strikes, they are 'turning up the heat'?

So it isn't about protecting civilians, after all.

TRIPOLI, May 24 (Xinhua) -- A NATO airstrike killed 19 people and injured over 130 others in Tripoli overnight Tuesday, a government spokesman said.

Moussa Ibrahim told Xinhua that the air raid, the heaviest against the capital in more than two months, lasted over one hour, and also caused huge property damage.

The NATO military carried out over a dozen attacks against "barracks of the people's guards," who are volunteer units supporting the government forces.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/25/c_13893343.htm

NATO's Feast of Blood

I left my room at the Rexis Al Nasr Hotel and walked outside the hotel and I could smell the exploded bombs. There were local people everywhere milling with foreign journalists from around the world. As we stood there more bombs struck around the city. The sky flashed red with explosions and more rockets from NATO jets cut through low cloud before exploding.

I could taste the thick dust stirred up by the exploded bombs. I immediately thought about the depleted uranium munitions reportedly being used here--along with white phosphorus. If depleted uranium weapons were being used what affect on the local civilians?

Women carrying young children ran out of the hotel. Others ran to wash the dust from their eyes. With sirens blaring, emergency vehicles made their way to the scene of the attack. Car alarms, set off by the repeated blasts, could be heard underneath the defiant chants of the people.

Sporadic gunfire broke out and it seemed everywhere around me. Euronews showed video of nurses and doctors chanting even at the hospitals as they treated those injured from NATO's latest installation of shock and awe. Suddenly, the streets around my hotel became full of chanting people, car horns blowing, I could not tell how many were walking, how many were driving. Inside the hotel, one Libyan woman carrying a baby came to me and asked me why are they doing this to us?

http://www.counterpunch.org/mckinney05242011.html

[Octafish]

28. Funny... No mention of permawar in the campaign.

Who runs Bartertown? The War Party runs Bartertown.

[KoKo]

29. Don't get out of there until Libya is under Nato Command...is what I say!

Enough of this "pussy footing around"...doing strategic bombing. It doesn't work. We need "BOOTS ON THE GROUND" to rout out these FASCIST GAHDAFFI SUPPORTERS!

I give credit to Obama and US Congress for not going "pussy footed" or "silent cat paws" into this War on Libya..because they fear the "Jane Fonda Wing of the Democratic Party getting their "panties in a wad" along with the PeaceNiks putting out protest "war songs" or trying to hold rallies or otherwise subversively calling in instigators like Web Site "Democracy Now" tailing them and reporting on what they are doing or TRYING TO DO.

BUT...they need to stand strong against this "Pacifist Minority" who still "groans and struts" and does pathetic GRAND PROTESTS (that get Millions to show Up across the USA) "every now and then" when they can get some Communist Site to support their marches and do the "grunt work" to get permits and the rest. What these Communist Funded Sites do is ORGANIZE...but they do it to get the last remaining "Jane Fonda Folks of old wheezing geezers who are sick on their dope and LSD from their GURU's in the 60's to still show up in wheel chairs and crutches to support a dying DEMOCRACY.

Those "Wheezing Geezers" should give it up. THEIR IDEAS ARE DEAD...they are DYING. No One listens to them, anymore. They are fools STFUP should be what they are told. Pull their Life Oxygen tubes ...save them their misery.

[killbotfactory]

30. Whe should have let the libyan revolutiaries rot in hell

Fuck 'em, they ain't us.

[classysassy]

32. The double standards

that the west and the UN impose on Libya but refuse to use the same standard against Israel.The Arabs are not stupid,they see the ploy used by the Europeans and the other western nations.In order for peace to prevail there must be justice,and there is no justice to be found when the Muslims/Arabs seek justice.So the wars continue our young men and women die for what?"Oh what fools we m ortals be"