If Obama Takes Credit For Ouster Of Libya’s Gaddafi, He Also Accepts Blame For Whatever Happens As A Result

The news of the day (Sunday) is that the rebels have finally prevailed in their struggle to overthrow Libyan strongman dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Obama has not yet interrupted his vacation to speak about the development, clearly waiting until more information comes in.

I don’t doubt that Obama’s first impulse will be to crow about Gaddafi’s ouster in a “This justifies my actions over the last several months” victory speech.

But don’t forget that it took 155 days –here’s an article detailing the chaos and embarrassment of the mission at day 100 – for a clearly nearly useless US-backed NATO to do something that Obama promised the American people would take, “days, not weeks.”

Also don’t forget that Obama ran roughshod over Congress – and over even his own previous demagogic anti-Bush rhetoric – when he undertook this action without ever bothering to get congressional approval for this action.

But let’s put all that aside, as truly bad as it all is, just for the sake of argument.

If Muammar Gaddafi is truly overthrown from Libya, who or what is going to take his place?  A worse regime?  A French-Revolution-style bloodbath of mob-rule and executions galore?  Terrorist Islamist groups like al Qaeda? A pro-Iranian puppet state like Lebanon?

It shouldn’t surprise anybody if the factions that fought alongside one another to depose Gaddafi begin to fight against each other for control over the oil fields and political control.  There are the Berbers versus the Arabs, and a whole bunch of tribes versus a whole bunch of other tribes.

Just remember that if Barack Obama assumes the credit for the wonderful day that Gaddafi is overthrown, then he should assume every single particle of blame for Libya turning ugly.

Colin Powell famously told Bush regarding Iraq, “If you break it, you buy it.”  And liberals threw that in Bush’s face – even though Bush got Saddam Hussein and won the Iraq War.  If a crisis develops – which I think it will – shouldn’t Obama be held accountable for his substantial role in buying Libya???

I imagine his advisers are probably informing Obama of that as further information comes in.  It will be interesting to see what Obama says.  Frankly, the less Obama crows, the more concerned we should be that Libya might become a chaotic bloodbath.

The Dow had been predicted to open down in the triple digits due to bad economic news prior to the developments in Libya being announced, and the futures are currently moderately down some eight hours before the market opens.  It will also be interesting to see how the market reacts to what they are seeing from Libya.  But also remember that the Dow – like Obama – could surge on seemingly good news, only to plummet miserably later if anarchy begins to take hold.

Tags: deposed, Gaddafi, rebels