Qaddafi Loses (And Obama Wins)

It looks like the bloody and vicious reign of Moammar Qaddafi is over in Libya. His location is still unknown at the time I am writing this, but the rebel forces control all of the country outside of Tripoli and most of the city. Qaddafi's position is untenable, and it's basically all over but the mop-up (and the celebrating).

And speaking of celebrating, the above pictures of Libyans celebrating shows who they thank for helping to rid them of Qaddafi. They call them the Fantastic 4. They are United States U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and President Barack Obama. The Libyans know that without the work of these four people to bring the air power of NATO into the fight on their side, it would have been much more difficult (and maybe impossible) to overthrow the dictator.

I have been critical of President Obama for his failure to stand up to the Republicans on domestic issues, but I certainly can't fault his political courage in standing up for the Libyan people and helping them to achieve their freedom from Qaddafi. When he led the effort last March to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and kicked off the NATO effort with American air power (which he then transitioned to NATO), the Republicans (both in Congress and on the campaign trail) were brutal in their complaints about his actions. According to them he wasn't doing enough, he was doing too much, and he was doing it wrong (and would fail).

So what happened? In about six months of conflict, with NATO backing the rebels, Qaddafi was defeated. It cost the United States about $1 billion (half of what one week in Afghanistan is costing). And it was done without the loss of a single American soldier. It sounds to me like he didn't just do a good thing, he did it the right way.

But they Republicans still refuse to give the president any credit. They are contorting the truth way out of shape to deny him any responsibility for the success in Libya. Maybe it's because he didn't do it the Republican way -- by involving the country in a decade-long and seemingly endless war costing billions of dollars a week and killing thousands of U.S. soldiers  while failing to accomplish the goal.

Maybe those Republicans should just keep their mouths shut about this one.