Sunday, March 20, 2011

Restoring Our Reputation Abroad

So our president has rallied the world around the Libya operation based on his restoration of our reputation abroad, I assume. After all, our president already has the Nobel Peace Prize. Morale stature just oozes, doncha know. So surely, the world is behind us even as we are behind the world community in having them take the lead on the crisis.

Let's see.

The African Union called for a halt to attacks on Khaddafi.

The Arab League has slammed the coalition for inflicting civilian casualties on Libyans because this isn't what they wanted (to be fair, they did only want a no-fly zone).

Oh, and Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua accused us of attacking for the oil or just plain imperialism.

Then let's not forget that we got 10 out of 15 votes on the Security Council, with Russia, China, Brazil, India, and Germany refusing to vote for the resolution.

And all this after only one day at war!

But sure, other than those dissenting countries, we have the whole world with us united to drop some bombs on Libya and perhaps save some or all of the Libyans; either overthrow the Khaddafi regime or let him survive this attack; and to continue until individual members of the coalition drop out.

Our smart foreign policy is sure paying off!