In terms of the Libyan incident, I do wonder what the administration was supposed to do. The USA, France and the UK have some tentative allies in Libya and Egypt rather than people who are on our side just for the money. How that pans out in the long run is yet to be seen, but there is one thing certain. It won't take very much to get rid of them. Appearing to back the film makers would probably do it.
You have to bear in mind that this was an extremist militia. The Obama administration held out a hand of apology. And now the militia has been driven from the city. Had the Obama administration held out a fist instead, that might not have happened. It could have cost the goodwill that the USA has just earned.
The fact is the administration is also entirely right. The film makers are in the wrong. I know that in the USA there are constitutional rights to say what you want. However, that should never be taken to mean that you have the moral right to say what you want. And that is the message that I saw coming out of the US, and it is quite correct.
As for Romney and the republicans, what concerns me is that the last 11 years has taught them nothing. Romney said he wanted to apply pressure to Palestine to get them to effectively surrender. That just shows that he still does not understand the basic principles of modern warfare, despite the act that the USA has been at war for the last three presidential terms.
The basic fact is this. And this has been seen in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. If you have little to live for, you will die very willingly. Half of Gaza's population are under 18. You tell them that they have to accept their lot in life, the Israeli cordons. Tell them that they will need Israel for everything, that they cannot farm, they cannot fish. And tell them that if they want peace they have to accept it on those conditions. Do you really expect anything but unending war? If your life is a life of squalor, no education, no job, no space, going out in a blaze of glory suddently sounds attractive.
For this reason the only way to subdue Gaza by military strength is to open up with the artillery, and then send the bulldozers in and not stop until the entire population has been driven into the sea. Otherwise, you have to reach a peaceful solution that at least offers them a future. And if you demand that they give in to force of arms, you are unlikely to find that solution (especially as that threat implies that he thinks Palestine has no claim to a better life).
The depressing thing is that this is how Iraq was fought, and how Afghanistan is lost. Iraq was not won by force of arms. It was won by making peace with the militia's. It was a political victory that ended 8 years of blood and misery. In Afghanistan the coalition struggles because it cannot offer anything different. They brought fire to the opium plants that were the only source of income. They offer no peace and only war. And in that backdrop, the Taliban, who are effectively the armed wing of the Pashtun people appeal to the Pashtuni villagers, as they have always had a horrible life and a corrupt Kabal offers them nothing else. You cannot subjucate such a people without killing every last one of them, so again a political solution has to be found. And yet the Republicans seem not to have noticed this and just want more war.
This is the same as happened in Vietnam. The US bascially offered more corruption and misery. And the Vietnemese were willing to fight because what they had under that was so bad.
Icewolf has been baptized in fire and blood and has emerged as IRON-Bay102174 14th March 2013