Internal Monologue

I don't suppose the folks at the Pentagon remember that Homer's "The Odyssey" takes place over a period of ten years as the hero struggles to get back home after participating in a decade-long war.

Things in Libya are moving so fast, the Pentagon doesn't even have time to deploy its PR hacks : There wasn’t any press briefing Friday at the Pentagon, even though a third simultaneous war is about to commence. That’s a pretty strong indication that the military doesn’t know what the goal is, either. So, what are our objectives again? Protect civilians from Qaddafi, I guess. For how long? At what cost? What happens if Libyan civilians start needing protection from the rebels? How come the leaders of Yemen get to kill their civilians? And Bahrain can import Saudi troops to crack down on their own dissidents? The lesson seems to be that as long as you curry favor with the US, you can oppress your citizens all you want. It seems as though we're attacking Qaddafi because we can, not because he is more evil than other dictators in the world. A little honesty about our actual motives would be refreshing.

According to this post , we've started firing cruise missiles at Libyan air defense sites. This is an act of war, and since Congress has not declared war, it is clearly unconstitutional and an abuse of executive power. The UN cannot declare war on behalf of the United States. I hate to say it, but there are now clear grounds for impeaching Obama. Would it have been so hard to get authorization from Congress first?

The war has started for the French : L’aviation française a ouvert le feu à 17h45 sur un véhicule militaire libyen et l’a neutralisé, indique le ministère de la défense français. Un demi-heure plus tard, ce sont trois véhicules supplémentaires qui ont neutralisés dans la région de Benghazi, indique le ministère de la défense. My translation: The French air force opened fire at 5:45 pm on a Libyan military vehicle and neutralized it, said the French Defense Minister. Half an hour later, three more vehicles had been neutralized in the Benghazi region, said the Defense Minister. The French headline uses the word "blindé" to describe the vehicles, which I think means "tank," but I'm not well-versed in French military terminology. The important thing to notice here is that attacking tanks means there's a lot more going on than just a "no-fly zone." This is direct ground support.

My friend Josh, who is well to the right of me on the US political spectrum but whose opinion on military matters I respect, offers these thoughts: If you're asking if imposing a no-fly zone is technically feasible, I think that a review of official and unofficial statements will demonstrate that the answer is yes. Technologically we have the capability, and in terms of force commitments if you look at how the forces in Afghanistan and Iraq are broken down, you will see the Air Force and Navy have a far lower fraction of their combat power committed to those theaters than the Army and Marine Corps. So if you look at the cautionary statements from people close to the department of defense, I think you will observe that they either state or at least fail to deny that enforcing a no-fly zone is feasible. The concerns that have been raised from that quarter appear to mostly focus on 1) realizing that enforcing a no-fly zone necessarily involves extensive suppression of a

No mention of asking Congress for a declaration of war, which absolutely should be done if we're getting involved. Shooting down planes, invading airspace, attacking radar installations, etc. is certainly an act of war. I'm tired of our executive branch declaring wars for us. It's blatantly unconstitutional. Obama Said no ground forces will be used, which is reassuring. But what if air power isn't enough? Are we willing to lose to Qaddafi if air power can't defeat him? How many innocent Libyans are going to be killed by our bombs? Sullivan's second round-up of Libya reactions here. MSNBC was reporting that loyalist forces were continuing to attack despite the unilateral cease-fire order. I think that cease-fire was a sham.

Thomas E. Ricks : Finally, what do we do when Qaddafi puts anti-aircraft batteries in mosques, orphanages and chemical weapons depots? Yeah. This war thing is not so simple.