The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Alaska. From National Geographic.
A good reference for where things are on the ground right now.
The Libyan War of 2011 (George Friedman) from Stratfor Global Intelligence
"The Libyan war has now begun. It pits a coalition of European powers plus the United States, a handful of Arab states and rebels in Libya against the Libyan government. The long-term goal, unspoken but well understood, is regime change — displacing the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and replacing it with a new regime built around the rebels. The mission is clearer than the strategy, and that strategy can’t be figured out from the first moves."
Where Each Middle East Country Stands on Libya from the Atlantic
"As fighter craft lift off, where are Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and Syria? Where is the African Union? A quick rundown of what we can find of the official (and unofficial) positions:"
It's On: The U.N. Security Council Passed a Resolution on Libya. What Happens Next? (Fred Kaplan) from Slate
"In short, this is about as tough and tight as U.N. resolutions get. ... So, what can this array of U.S., European, and Arab air forces do? Quite a lot."
Now, I have to be frank. As Kaplan notes, Obama's team (re: Clinton, Rice, and Power) rung as strong a resolution out of the security council as anyone could expect, one you CERTAINLY would not have expected given where things were as late as Tuesday. Between the language of the resolution and the broad coalition Obama and the Europeans put together, you can see clearly that Obama is looking to avoid many of the mistakes W made during his tenure. Having said this, one of the most disturbing aspects of this venture is the self-satisfied "export democracy" pontificating by folks like Kaplan and his neo-con friends, William Kristol, Max Boot et al. I view it as one of biggest portents of foreboding that Obama finds himself even close to this crowd, people who have been so CONSISTENTLY WRONG over the last twenty years, people who (in my view) should have long ago been ridden out of Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon on a rail. That THESE FOLKS should be cheer-leading this policy should make everyone *even more circumspect* about how this is going to go and what we can actually achieve.
In the same vein:
Intervention in Libya: The 'Not-Iraq' War (Warren Strobel) from the McClatchy News Service
"Eight years ago Saturday, President George W. Bush launched the U.S. invasion of Iraq, without an explicit mandate from the United Nations and without much concern over which U.S. allies went along. France vehemently opposed the invasion and had tried to scuttle it diplomatically a month earlier. Fast forward to 2011, and the diplomatic picture is turned upside-down."
On the up side:
The Chimes of Freedom Ring in Benghazi (Rami G. Khouri) from the Daily Star [of Lebanon in English]
"I have long opposed Western, especially Anglo-American, military intervention in the Arab world, but the case for protecting or assisting the Libyan rebels is different because of the clear support for such a move among Libyans, other Arabs, and most of the world."
Obama's First New War (Marc Ambinder) from National Journal
"By directing the military to hit targets inside Libya, the Obama administration is trying to strike an incredibly delicate balance between a strong disinclination to invade a Muslim country and their determined desire to avoid looking like they’re walking away from the indiscriminate slaughter of innocents."
An interesting take on the decision-making process that led up to the attacks on Libya.
U.S. Actions May Speak Louder than Words from the Washington Post
"“We did not lead this,” she told reporters. But her modest words belied the far larger role the United States played as international forces began an open-ended assault on Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s military capabilities."
Clinton, Rice Joined to Get Buy-in for No-fly Zone from CNN
"President Barack Obama's decision to undertake military action in Libya to enforce a no-fly zone was the product of an administration debate with unlikely bedfellows."
From another front in the Middle East:
Syrian Police Attack Marchers at Funerals from the New York Times
"Protests broke out in four cities on Friday, a rare event in a police state that brutally represses dissent."
At the largest one, a march of several thousand people in Dara’a, a police crackdown killed six people. When you start killing lots of people ... at funerals, it sets up an on-going, escalating cycle of political unrest that will be hard to stem or dial back.
The Vatican Circles the Wagons (Kevin Rafferty) from the Japan Times [in English]
"The abrupt — and underhanded — sacking of a key lay Catholic official by Vatican clerics raises disturbing questions about where Pope Benedict XVI is taking the Roman Catholic Church. That the official is the only woman leading a major Catholic body may be accidental proof of the crass chauvinistic behavior of male cardinals and monsignors. But the fact that the body is the most important interface between the Church and the largely non-Catholic developing world makes the sacking more troublesome."
Japan's Refugees Crowd Shelters And Wait from NPR's Morning Edition [audio due by noon on Sunday]
"As many as 400,000 people in Japan are now displaced due to the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent crisis at the nuclear power plant. Doualy Xaykaothao reports for NPR from Fukushima prefecture in one of the largest shelters in Koriyama City."
A moving portrait of how shelter victims are faring in Japan.
Signaling Dissent from the Economist [of London]
"Savvy techies are finding ways to circumvent politically motivated shutdowns of the internet"
Labor Movement Roars Again, But It's A Wounded Sound from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post
"In the bitter aftermath of a showdown with Wisconsin's governor, and as other states move to weaken public employee bargaining rights, unions and their allies dare to hope they can turn rage into revival. This could be a make-or-break moment for a movement that brought the nation the 40-hour
week, overtime pay, upward mobility, a storied century of brawls, progressivism and corruption – and now a struggle to stay relevant in the modern age."
Necessary: Wisconsin Recalls (O. Ricardo Pimentel) from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"An intelligent electorate will reserve recall elections for only those times and offenses that warrant them. They are warranted now. Not because legislators' votes showed up in an "aye" or "no" column but for the duplicity with which these votes were conducted."
In WI, the Politics of Domestic Discord from the Wisconsin State Journal
"The good news for Sen. Randy Hopper these days is that despite his impending divorce, his soon-to-be ex-wife is still voting for him. The bad news: her vote seems to be for his recall."
The Phantom Campaign: Shadow-Boxing for the Presidency (Larry Sabato) from the University of Virginia Center for Politics
"Much has changed since our launch of the 2012 Crystal Ball Presidential Ratings—and yet little has changed in this slow-starting campaign. We outlined all our cautions about early assessments in the January Crystal Ball, so we’ll just skip right to the red meat evaluation."
The GOP Spending Schism (Chris Good) from the Atlantic
"Conservatives in the party have grown impatient, and if the pressure on GOP leaders isn't intensifying, it's at least been sustained. Unity is turning into dissent."
For Senate Dems in 2012, the Die Isn’t Cast (Charlie Cook) from the National Journal
"Although it’s likely that Democrats will lose their Senate majority, it’s not preordained. Campaigns matter."
Bill Maher: Governing With GOP 'Is Like Rooming With A Meth Addict' from TalkingPointsMemo
"Maher's main beef with the right wing tonight: a perceived lack of focus on real issues. He rattled off a list of what he called the "useless distractions that make up the Republican Party agenda" - they included public unions, Sharia law, anchor babies, the "Ground Zero mosque," NPR, and the "war on Christmas," among others. So bad is this problem, Maher said, that trying to govern with Republicans "is like rooming with a meth addict" who, instead of rent, is worrying that police bugged the air conditioner."
TOO TRUE!!
OBAMA FAMILY NUGGET!!
Moneygall, Ireland: A Village of Obama Family-Tree Huggers from the Los Angeles Times [from 2009]
"The president's great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from the speck on the Irish map, and residents couldn't be prouder."
A contextual note for Obama's on-the-schedule trip to Ireland in June!
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