The Afghanistan war is the longest war in US history. The war in Libya makes three wars in Muslim nations. We still have almost 50,000 troops in Iraq and 100,000 in Afghanistan. Our military is calling our Libyan intervention Operation Odyssey Dawn. Odysseus voyage lasted 10 years. As citizens of this country, we need to deliberate our involvement in this new war. We can’t allow the mission to creep in Libya without our voices being heard. How far do we want to go with our involvement in Libya?
The United States is in charge of a war that was not its charge. A handoff needs two hands. England wanted NATO to take command. France noted objections. The Arab League opposes an entirely NATO command. Yet the Arab states are not in the fight. Tuesday, France proposed a steering committee that includes Arab states. So goes the bureaucracy of multilateral wars. Meanwhile, another day passes, and America leads another war. Command could soon shift. But the warriors might not shift with it.
The British and French pushed hardest for international intervention. Muammar el-Qaddafi threatened the mass murder of civilians. France and England won the Security Council's authorization. It was a new day. America was a "junior partner" in the walk-up to war.
Yet this is a very American war. Three B-2 stealth bombers flew over the weekend from Missouri's Whiteman Air Force Base to Misurata, Libya. Forty-five 2,000-pound bombs were dropped. The strike included more than a dozen American F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. Sunday's Tomahawk attack involved two U.S. destroyers, three U.S. submarines and only one British submarine. And no military action is truly surgical. An American F-15 crashed in Libya on Tuesday, though its crew survived and are safe.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
We need to be clear about what this new war means in a historical sense. Our nation has moved into a new paradigm. We are engaged in war in three Muslim countries. How far do we want to go in Libya? How far can we push our troops?
Whether you are for or against our involvement in Libya, please, pause, and give thought to what this new front means to our men and woman in the military.
Give some thought to what this tells us about ourselves as a nation.
Give some thought to our intervention in a civil war while we are still involved in the War on Terror.
Give some thought about why we are involved in “the broadest global American military presence since the Second World War.”
But most of all, give some thought to how and when we bring our troops home.