Okay, we're familiar with the Obama drill on Libya to date: 1) Write political checks with your mouth that you have no intention of cashing with your military. 2) Keep acting like it's no big thing to your presidency, because you're a busy leader, and let the French take this bit in their mouth for once. 3) When all the ducks (UN, NATO, Arab League) are lined up, commit only the minimum of cutting-edge military assets to make this work, emphasizing no boots on the ground and absolutely no sense of responsibility for the aftermath — besides the usual superpower tithing. So yeah, a responsibility to protect, just no responsibility to pay the Bush-Cheney standard of 90-percent of blood and treasure.
Now for the official sales pitch to the American people, line-by-line:
I want to begin by paying tribute to our men and women in uniform...
Translation: Although every president starts out every war address like this, I'm a Democrat, and so I especially need to do this.
For generations, the United States of America has played a unique role as an anchor of global security and advocate for human freedom. Mindful of the risks and costs of military action, we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the world's many challenges. But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act. That is what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks.
Translation: I know I'm running the world's sole military superpower, and I know Libya meets the obvious minimum standards for an intervention, but remember that this has only been going on for six weeks, so don't you dare label me as...
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/obama-libya-speech-5473207?src=rss
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