Can't We All Just Get Along? (Apparently Not)

This Libya thing has already begun to spin wildly out of hand....The Right Wingers in the U.S. have already started their attacks on President Obama...but even more alarming...The so called Allied Nations of NATO can't seem to get along either.. It appears to be a pissing contest between certain nations as to who should be running the show. Incredible...

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Discord erupted Monday in Europe over whether the military operation in Libya should be controlled by NATO, after Turkey blocked the alliance's participation while Italy issued a veiled threat to withdraw the use of its bases unless the alliance was put in charge.

Germany also questioned the wisdom of the operation, and Russia's Vladimir Putin railed against the UN-backed air strikes mounted so far against Moammar Gadhafi's force by Britain, France and the United States outside of their NATO roles.

"The Security Council's resolution is flawed, it allows everything and is reminiscent of a medieval call for a crusade," Putin said. "In fact, it allows intervention in a sovereign state." He's actually right.

A day after Turkey declined to support a military plan for the alliance to enforce a Libya no-fly zone, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he could support the NATO effort — but only if it does not turn into an occupation. Again...I find that reasonable.

"NATO should only enter Libya to determine that Libya belongs to Libyans and not to distribute its natural resources and richness to others," Erdogan said during a visit to Saudi Arabia.

There had been widespread expectation that the strikes against Libya would be overseen by NATO, and the hastily improvised nature of the military coalition has drawn criticism.

The United States, France and Britain initiated attacks on Libya on Saturday, raining cruise missiles and precision bombs on Libyan military targets on the ground, including Gadhafi's residential compound. Other countries have since joined in.

Diplomats said Turkey, a NATO member that sees itself as a bridge between Europe and the Muslim world, was angered by its exclusion from an emergency summit Saturday in Paris organized by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at which the 22 participants agreed to launch armed action against Gadhafi's military.

France ended up making the first strikes, and the diplomats said Turkey's envoys had warned that NATO's participation in the airstrikes could damage the alliance's standing in the Islamic world at a time when it is heavily engaged in the war in Afghanistan.

The diplomats, who are accredited to NATO, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

NATO's participation in any military action against Libya would require the approval of all 28 NATO members. But Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal denied that his country was grounding NATO.

"Turkey is not blocking NATO, Turkey has been contributing to the preparations with a positive approach since the beginning," Unal told The Associated Press.

The NATO diplomats said the North Atlantic Council, NATO's top decision-making body, was unable to reach agreement Monday, and would take up the issue again on Tuesday for the fourth day in a row.

Even if such an order is adopted, it would take several days before aircraft under NATO command could start flying missions over Libya. The order also is likely to restrict NATO's air forces to making sure there are no unauthorized flights over Libya, with no mention of attacks on ground targets, one of the diplomats said.

France seeks leadership. Turkey was apparently not the only obstacle. Diplomats said France was seeking political leadership of the mission, but this was opposed by a number of other nations, which wanted NATO firmly in charge. Another sticking point was just how aggressive the enforcement of the no-fly zone should be, as several nations strongly opposed continuing the air strikes on Libyan ground targets.

From Chile, President Barack Obama said the United States would transfer leadership of the military operation to other, unnamed participants within a "matter of days, not weeks."

"NATO will be involved in a coordinating function because of the extraordinary capacity of that alliance" but details of the transfer — when it would take place and to whom — would be provided by U.S. military leaders, President Obama said.

Italy warned Monday that it would review the use of its bases by coalition forces if NATO does not take over. The country lies just across the Mediterranean from Libya and is allowing the use of seven of its military bases.

"Italy will begin reflecting on the use of its bases," said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, according to Italian news reports. "If there is a multiplication of command centers, we must study a way in which Italy retakes control of its bases."Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi insisted the mission should pass to NATO's command, and said Italian planes would not launch any missiles. Speaking in Turin, he said coordination among partners must be "different from the one that has been established so far."

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On the home front, That queen of the Right wing, Sarah Palin ,in her best passive aggressive mode (and not to mention hypocritical), used her speech this weekend in India to say that Americans have a tradition of criticizing the President while overseas. Then she proceeded to criticize the President while overseas, Explain that to me please..

“The U.S. has a tradition of course of Americans as we travel to foreign soil we don’t criticize our President’s foreign policy — even as friendly soil as India is — I won’t criticize what his foreign policy has been. But, to answer your question, certainly there would have been more decisiveness, there would have been more commitment to making sure that those who are freedom fighters, who truly desire democracy and free and fair elections and respect for human rights and women’s rights, that they know that America is on their side. And we have a rich tradition, a history in America of being on the side of those who would seek democracy, who would seek freedom, and free markets. So, yes, there would have been more decisiveness and less, though the word has been beaten to death, the word ‘dithering’? I, heaven forbid you hear that again in national news over in the U.S. because it’s used all the time. But less dithering, more decisiveness.” -She said, while at a speaking engagement at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi.

Despite the fact that I don't care what she (or any of the Tea Party pundits) have to say about anything...I said that President Obama would be attacked from all ends.. To my knowledge , nobody on the left has said anything public about his policy towards Libya...but it's coming...There were several Anti War protests this past weekend.

I'm not going to go on and on about this and barring some major new development I'm not writing another post about this Libyan thing this week...All I'm saying is that I personally feel as though, our involvement in this was a bad idea and that this thing is spiraling way out of control, way too soon....but what do I know? By the way...What is the price tag on this?

Ummmm Hmmmm, another blog post for another day...but not tomorrow.