God the Libya Skeptics are getting stupid...

Here's what they don't seem to get: there are like 1,000 reasons to be in Libya and none to stay out. Proving we should not be fighting this war requires you refute each one. Here's a small list:

1) We'll win, and we need a win.

2) It's two goddamn feet from Europe.

3) If we didn't go in Gaddafi's troops would have taken Benghazi, and that would not have resulted in hugs and puppies.

4) If we didn't go in the French and British would have gone in alone. 362 Brits have died in Afghanistan. So have 53 Frenchman. Neither country was a target of any Afghan group until it sent troops there. We owe them.

etc. etc. etc.

As for the most recent flap, yes part of the reason we went in was the French wanted to go in. If you read my blog you know that already, and knew that before the administration said so. It was obvious.

I don't care if Sarkozy is an ass. He's the ass the French people elected their President. Everyone else had to deal with Bush for eight years because we picked the guy, I don't think it's very fair for us to bitch about their democratic choices in leader.

I am not surprised that Sarko was more important in this decision then Congress. Congress has exactly two powers in terms of foreign policy: it can declare war, and it can cut funding. That's it under the US Constitution. It's well-known that the ability to cut funding is a dead letter because Congress is too damn pussy to do that to our troops. It's obvious declarations of war are equally irrelevant because we only do that when it's a huge deal. This is the third time we've fought in Libya and we have never declared war. 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, and the World Wars are the only times Congress has actually used that power.

Here's William Saletan's outraged take:

In other words, morals alone won't move us to attack. We'll do it only if other nations care.

This surprises you? Where have you been? Kosovo had a coalition. Iraq had a coalition twice. Lebanon had a coalition. Afghanistan had a coalition. Korea had a coalition. The World Wars are famous for their coalitions. Grenada had a "Caribbean Peace Force." Even Vietnam had a coalition.

He makes it sound bad "We're outsourcing our standards for intervention," but it's a bit surprising somebody got a job for Slate writing about this crap and didn't know that we've always "outsourced" our standards for intervention to one extent or another.