Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Obama, Libya, Bologna & Pick-Up Basketball

During a private session for members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper compared rebel forces in Libya to a "pick-up basketball team". Clapper said intelligence officials have identified a few questionable individuals within the rebel ranks.

Well, I'm a bit confused. President Obama is a pretty decent pick-up basketball player. He should be able to discern which rebels are truly worthy of dribbling the ball for the rebel team. What's more, several weeks ago, while Japan and Egypt were mired in chaos, Obama found time to fill out his bracket for the NCAA basketball tournament. And, although his NCAA picks were way off the mark, I'm sure he's fully capable of discerning which members of the rebel basketball team are legitimate Al Qaeda rebels, deserving of U.S. military assistance, and which ones are fake rebels...

During the same briefing on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected lawmakers' contentions that President Obama should have obtained Congressional authorization before launching military attacks on Libya. Clinton said the War Powers Act does not require Congressional approval.

Well, maybe Hillary needs to tell that to the President. It was Obama, after all, who insisted George. W. Bush needed congressional authorization to launch attacks on Iran, despite the fact that Mr. Bush never even authorized military action against Iran.

Nevertheless, Rep. Dan Burton vehemently disagreed with Clinton's assertion.

Mr. Burton also questioned who would lead Libya if and when Gaddafi is deposed.

“Who’s going to be in charge over there?" he asked. "Is it going to be people who have been against us from the outset? Are we supporting people like the Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda or the Taliban?... It sounds to me like they jumped into this thing and they’re saying, ‘What do we do now?’”

Concerning the U.S military involvement in Libya, Mr. Burton said, "This is, in my opinion, bologna."

Well, Mr, Burton, there's a small child who has expressed similar sentiments about President Obama. You might want to talk to him.