Update

It appears that the rebels have retaken the town of Ajdabiya. After British air strikes like this one you can understand why this is possible. While the British MOD claims this was to protect civilians it also appears to be tactical air strikes in preparation of the battlefield for the Rebels. Speaking of one of the rebels admitted to fighting against US forces in Afghanistan..... Great.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan the Marines in Helmand get ready for spring and the poppy season and the return of the Taliban and foreign fighters into the area. Putting Marines right on the border is going to be a nasty business and except some pretty significant action when that happens. Helmand borders the HQ of the Taliban in Pakistan and they have a significant recruiting base there. It is also one area of Pakistan that the government there will not allow Predator and Reaper drones. The ISI would not Mullah Omar to get killed by accident.

It looks like 3/5 is going to get to come home on time. This unit has seen some very serious action and a bunch of casualties in it six months in Sangin.

On the social matters front there is a special place in hell for this woman.

WTF

I need and more importantly the American people need a reason why we are involved in Libya. Follow me here if you would a minute. Yes Gaddafi is a tyrant and dictator and no friend to the U.S. or the West but is it up to the U.S. to fly combat mission on the country? There are some issues that need to be addressed.

1. Sec State Clinton herself said no-fly zones do not work.

2. Great Britain released one of the Lockerbie bombers due to pressure from BP so they could drill in Libya.

3. France imports 15% of their oil from Libya

Both of these countries have a lot to lose from an unstable Libya so why would they prefer the "rebels" over the current regime. While I try not to sound like a conspiracy nut here what does the US gain from being involved.

It seems to me that NATO had to be involved because the British nor the French have the command, control, communication and intelligence (C3I) to coordinate a coalition. For that they needed US involvement. It would seem our commander in chief (CinC) and his staff have no idea what they are doing and may have been duped into undertaking this operation.

Oh by the way the grand coalition they keep talking about...There were twice as many coalition partners for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Just saying.

Meanwhile the President says he has talked to enough members of congress to be OK with going to war. Yet there has been no formal hearings or consultations with congress on the current conflict. Today it was released that the CinC sent a letter to congress. Call me underwhelmed, again I ask what is the end game?

There are better rebellions to be supporting namely the one in Syria which could actually give the US a strategic victory if the Assad regime could be overthrown. While the Sunnis that take over probably will not be our friends it might be an opportunity to separate Syria from Hezbollah and Iran.

Back to Libya Mr. President we demand an answer.

Order of Battle

Wow according to Reuters this attack on Libya is being done on the cheap. Still the US does not have an aircraft carrier in the Med. I imagine there are some red faced admirals right now. There was a time when the U.S. had a carrier in the Med at all times.

Human Shields

Using the press as human shields not a bad idea and I do not know why the Brit held back al-Reuters and CNN they will be accusing the West of atrocities at any time.

Foreign Fighters

In 2007 a cache of AQI documents was found after a raid in Sanjir Iraq which is on the Syrian border. This records were of 606 foreign fighters brought into Iraq to fight against US forces and the Iraqi government. Saudi Arabia (244) our friends and allies contributed more fighters than anyone else. The next country on the list was Libya (112) or 18.8%. All in all North Africa contributed 191 for 31% or foreign fighters.

This is something to think about when we rally behind the Libyan rebels/freedom fighters.

B2 Bombers

We have used B2 bombers to launch an attack against Libya's air forces. This is all well and good so we have blown holes in some concrete and destroyed some planes. Apparently Libya's air force has been grounded since yesterday's shoot down of a Mig23/27 over Benghazi. So the no fly zone is working.

Now we have other issues:

Qatar is sending planes but they will not drop bombs.

Some of the Arab League countries whose support we need are wavering because we are having to launch air to ground attacks against targets. Was how to impose a no-fly zone not explained to them?

China and Russia are already not happy about the ground strikes (hopefully this is just noise they have to do politically as they do not want to be seen backing anything the West does).

Let me be clear I do not agree that with Gaddafi when he says it is al-Qaeda leading the rebellion against him. However Libyans are well represented in Islamic terrorist groups including al-Qaeda and I think are very much involved with this rebellion. According to the link I added our military thinks the same thing as well. We are getting played by the rebellion and are providing close air support for a group that will not be any better than Gaddafi.

I still want to know what the end game is are we trying for regime change? Are we just going to keep Gaddafi's air force on the ground and let the rebels try to do everything else themselves (if this is the case they will lose)? Or like I said above are we going to try and shape the battlefield so the rebels can overcome Libya army and mercenaries.

To our counter-terrorism people be prepared Libya can still strike soft targets and if he cannot himself he has paid terrorists before he can again. Do not be surprised if some terrorist groups start seeing offers to fill their coffers in exchange for attacks to be launched.