And I Thought We Were There To Protect Civilians
by James Glaser
May 26, 2011

Back in March, when President Obama told us about the war he was starting in Libya, he made it sound like we were going to put in a no-fly zone and do what ever it took to protect the civilian population. The President made it sound like it was no big deal.

Today, we are in our third month of Obama's war, and the no-fly zone seems to be in place, but rather than protect civilians, it seems we are now killing them.

In every modern war that has ever taken place, the bombing of civilian cities kills civilians. Read this report from the Associated Press, dated May 25th 2011, two month after Obama's War started,

BRUSSELS (AP) — The military campaign in Libya began with what seemed a narrowly defined mission: to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians from attack.

Two months later, the campaign has evolved into a ferocious pounding of the country's capital, Tripoli, in what appears an all-out effort to oust Moammar Gadhafi. But that goal remains elusive, raising the prospect of a quagmire in the desert. And the political will of the countries involved is being sorely tested.

So, what do you think happens when the most powerful nation on earth (The United States) "ferociously pounds any capital city with their air power"? No matter how good the intentions are, nor how good the intelligence is, or even how sophisticated the weaponry used is claimed to be, mistakes are made, shrapnel flies, and poor innocent civilians are killed and maimed.

Remember, President Obama said this would be a short war, which is what every president for the past 50 years has said about any war we have become involved in. Short wars have a way of turning into long wars, and all wars bring death and destruction to the innocent civilians, even if we start out claiming we are attacking to protect those same innocent people.

We have been told that our war in Iraq is coming to an end, and it has been reported that over 70% of the American public wants us to get out of Afghanistan. But, there is a problem. The United States has been on a war-time economy for over half a century, and if we have no war, our economy will tank even more than it is now.

What to do? We either get off our dependence of war as a way to make money, or President Obama has to start a new war or maybe two or three. Obama had already started things in Pakistan and Yemen, but they are not the type of action needed to support our economy. Libya might just be the place that our Defense Industry can make a profit from. Sure some innocent civilians are going to be killed and maimed, but that will happen where ever we start bombing. It is a cost of, uh, what would you call it? I guess killing civilians is a cost of doing business, and the United States I am afraid is in the business of fighting wars.

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