Yesterday, John McCain appeared on the CBS morning show and called for arming the rebels in Libya who are fighting against Moammar Gadhafi.
But what he really did was dish up a triple helping of hypocrisy and irony.
McCain twice called for the ouster of Gadhafi because the Libyan dictator has “American blood on his hands” — referring to the Lockerbie bombing that was carried out by a Libyan agent 1988. There’s just one problem. Just two years ago, McCain led a contingent of US Senators to Libya to discuss the delivery of defensive military equipment to Gadhafi. In fact, up until a few weeks ago, Republicans considered Gadhafi a reformed man. Bush removed Libya from the list of terrorist sponsors in 2006, and in 2008 signed a settlement that had Libya compensate the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims.
So which is it? Did Gadhafi have American blood on his hands in 2009, when McCain held a friendly visit with him? Or didn’t he?
But the real whopper happened when the CBS interviewer asked McCain this question: If the US arms the Libyan rebels, how confident are we that these same rebels are not part of some terrorist organization that could later turn on the US?
McCain: Well, what we know of them so far obviously are that the former justice minister and others — and a government has been formed, part of that government. But Gadhafi is a proven quantity. The blood of Americans is on his hands because he was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am 103. He has been involved in other acts of terror. And by the way it does take time, as it did during the period of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. But we were able to provide them with some weapons and wherewithal to cause the Russians to leave Afghanistan. So we can do it.
Is McCain serious? Has he completely forgotten that those rebels that we armed in Afghanistan included Osama bin Laden and the Taliban? Holy blowback!
Of course, we don’t have any reason to believe that the same thing could happen in Libya. Or do we? Just because some of the now Libyan rebels recently fought against us in Iraq, why would McCain worry about that?
And I thought that Sarah Palin was the idiot. I am so glad he is not our president.
15 Comments
Those weren’t rebels in Afghanistan. Those were Saudi Arabian bored Princes armed by the US to fight the Russians. And stayed to form the Hardline Religion=the Taliban. And in the 1980s, took away the education of the Afghans so they had no education until Bush invaded in 2002. Taliban is still is burning schools. Karzai begged them to stop burning schools. The Taliban and the Republicans know that if you have an uneducated population, you have more control over the population.
McCain has an ally in Newt. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_LIBYA_GINGRICH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-23-18-20-45
That’s hilarious. Next thing you know, he will talk about energy independence and building more nuclear power plants and then point out how much nuclear power Japan has.
Unfortunately McCain needs to retire, but just like Gadhafi he’ll only go if forced out. The Libyan rebels in the east of that country are suspected to be some of the foreign forces that aligned themselves with the insurgents in Iraq that we were fighting against. Gadhafi may not have been too far off when he said Al Qaida was behind te uprising in his country. Those same fighters were on AQ’s side, but its not clear if they were believers in that cause or just like a good fight. It is intersting how they got so many weapons, ammunition and supplies.
When we took Gadhafi off the terror sponsor list it was in part because he voluntarily dismantled his nuclear weapons program and part because he provided some intelligence on AQ. Whats that old saying “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
For our actions in Libya I’m not certain were supporting the right side yet. Don’t get me wrong, I love puttin a whoopin on a bully like Gadhafi, and Saddam, but look where that has led us to; 3 months of war, followed by 8 years of nation building, sqashing a civil war and 780 billion in treasure. Is that what we want in Libya? Where is the Arab League in all of this?
PatriotSGT:
Didn’t seen a source for the idea that Al Qaida is supporting / orchestrating the uprising: do you happen to have one? I’ld be interested in reading it. 🙂
I don’t have the source (got to love radio), but either NPR or the BBC said that the Arab League asked for the intervention in Libya. Does anyone have a source for that? Thanks.
The Arab League asked for the no-fly zone. Then after the air strikes started, they backed off a bit, but seem to be back on board. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/22/arab-league-libya-no-fly
As for your first question, see the last link in the original post.
Is this what you’re looking for?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-12-arab-league-libya_N.htm
Thanks for answering Thought Dancer’s questions for me IK and RK (are you guys brothers,LOL 🙂 )
IK: That’s what I get for reading the posts before having my morning cup of coffee. I didn’t see that link, just the other one.
What a spin, everyone had Gadhafi as a reformed man, not just repubs.
@Sgt
“Thanks for answering Thought Dancer’s questions for me IK and RK (are you guys brothers,LOL )”
No, I’m taller then IK is and have a better sense of humor. I’m also better at disc golf.
On the other hand, I’m a better writer — that should be “I’m taller *than* IK”. 🙂
But RK is definitely better at disc golf than I am.
Hey, maybe that was a grammatical error and not a typo…
-Ray Knee
(no relation)
All we need now is a -Sun Knee, or a Son Knee, or a Toe Knee, Ben Knee, Bon Knee, Brow Knee, Corn Knee. Here’s a cute one -Fan Knee, or Fun Knee. Then theres Gin Knee or Jen Knee, Nan Knee, Pen Knee and Skin Knee. 🙂
I have to confess that I borrowed the name idea from a friend of mine, who spells her name J-Knee.
I mentioned this a long time ago in the blog, but the funniest thing about the name is that around half the people who read “Iron Knee” don’t get the pun with “Irony” unless they hear it out loud. Has nothing to do with intelligence — I guess some people sound out words as they read them, and some don’t.
Well confessions being told, when I first started reading the blog I was still amped up from my last deployement and I’m also a big fan of the military group Missing Parts. They run the Army 10 miler and are all amputees. A few do the course in wheelchairs, but most with their prostetic limbs. So I thought maybe you were a veteran amputee with a real iron knee, but realized rather quickly it was the matching pun for the site name. Sometimes I get too literal.