Today the New York Times describes the state of the war in Libya: WASHINGTON – NATO plans to step up attacks on the palaces, headquarters and communications centers that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi uses to maintain his grip on power in Libya, according to Obama administration and allied officials. This "more energetic bombing campaign" included "a separate raid on Monday that temporarily knocked Libyan state television off the air." As the Times' Thom Shanker and David Sanger explain: Officials in Europe and Washington said the strikes were meant to reduce the Libyan government's ability to harm civilians by eliminating, link by [...]
Mar
08
2011
Hawks vs. Hawks: Debating U.S. Military Intervention in Libya
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The New YorkTimes has a piece today (3/7/11) about thedebate over U.S. military intervention in Libya. The paper reports that there are persistent voices–in Congress and even inside the administration–arguing that Mr. Obama is moving too slowly. Reporters David Sanger and Thom Shanker contend that there is too much concern about perceptions, and that the White House is too squeamish because of Iraq. And who are those persistent voices? The most vocal camp, led by senators John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee for president, and Joseph I. Lieberman, the Connecticut independent and another hawk on Libyan intervention, say the central [...]
Feb
18
2009
NY Times Amplifies Pentagon's Budget Worries
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Today's New York Times features a piece by Thom Shanker thatdwells onsuspected budget cuts at thePentagon. As theheadline tells us,"After Stimulus Package, Pentagon Officials Are Preparing to Pare Back." The piece gives little reason to believe that there are any such plans afoot; Obama did not campaign on cutting the Pentagon budget, and in fact we learn further on that any suspected cuts won't mean a total decrease in military spending: Even if overall spending is reduced, the official Defense Department budget may actually grow over last year's spending plan, because billions of dollars in emergency spending that now passes [...]
