Will President Barack Obama Stand by his Decision To Refrain from Sending Troops to Libya?
by Kyra O. Davenport
Our nation is experiencing a multitude of catastrophic events. Japan has been devastated by the tsunami, Sudan is suffering genocide, and war has broken out in Libya. Most Americans are asking: what is the president going to do to aid these countries? Perhaps the number one question on Americans’ minds is whether our soldiers are going to deploy to Libya. The Washington Post headline entitled “Obama: U.S. will not send ground troops to Libya” speaks volumes to our curiosity and furthers our judgments about the President’s leadership ability, but first we must read on.
The real question to be dissected is, Is social justice worth fighting for even when the injustice does not directly affect the United States? As a future officer it is my belief that social justice is always worth fighting for and, if ordered by my commander in chief, I would stand ready to accomplish that mission. Gaddafi’s greed has put Libya’s citizens into a state of destitution. “Gaddafi amassed vast fortunes during his 42-year rule. Much of the country’s income from oil, which soared in the 1970s, was spent on arms purchases and on sponsoring militancy and terror in the world. Once a breadbasket of the ancient world, the eastern parts of the country became impoverished under Gaddafi’s economic theories. Libya’s corruption perception index in 2010 was 2.2, which was worse than that of Egypt and Tunisia, two neighboring countries who faced uprising before Libya.”[1] Furthermore, Libya is under a state of Orwellian surveillance—the government’s watch is pervasive and ruthless. Of course this background on Libya only scratches the surface; following the recent uprising, the Gaddafi has unleashed extreme violence on his people.
We now ask, what will President Obama choose to do or not do? As a leader, it is more directly put as what he will do or fail to not do? It is moments like these when those who believe in President Obama will stand by him and those who cringed when he was elected will anticipate his failure. Obama has made it clear that he will intervene and he will aid Libya. Obama stated, “This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought.”[2] From Brazil he stated, “We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy.”[3] To further discuss this statement, Barack Obama believes in having a plan of action and we see this in the way he is handling the current conflict in Libya; he is not just reacting for the sake of having a reaction.
Through my research I find that President Barack Obama desires to be slow and methodical in his approach to eliciting the military to defend and or protect. This may evoke outrage from politicians simply because it is untraditional. The actions desired are that Obama will notice conflict and automatically and vehemently activate troops to defend Libya. Recently a retired general mentioned at an Army awards ceremony I attended that, “you will always see a flock of seagulls together, but you will never see a flock of eagles. Eagles stand alone and eagles are powerful and strong. As a leader sometime you will stand alone.” President Barack Obama is certainly not afraid to do so.
[1] 2011 Libyan Uprising, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Libyan_uprising (last modified Mar. 28, 2011).
[2] Obama on Libya: This is Not What We Wanted, CBSNews (Mar. 19, 2011), http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/19/501364/main20045019.shtml.
[3] Quote for the Day, Daily Dish (Mar. 20, 2011), http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/03/quote-16.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment