America Abdicates Again

A world power and certainly the sole remaining superpower has a moral obligation to lead. We see the United States willfully shirking that duty when it comes to Libya. Barack Hussein Obama has passed the burden of leadership to Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and French leader Nicolas Sarkozy. The United States Department of State initially talked a good game with bluster about the necessity of Qaddafi leaving, but the American Department of Defense sent a chastening message that the US lacks the military power to implement the type of force necessary to oust the Libyan tyrant easily, and therefore, the multilateral bodies, particularly the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, must bear the brunt of any generally agreed operation to oust Qaddafi. If this were truly the case, why was an American aircraft carrier deployed near Libya almost immediately after the open resistance to Qaddafi began? There are thousands of Libyans on the ground present and armed already to do the dirty work necessary to remove the despot and the air support provided by that single American aircraft carrier would be more than enough to rid Qaddafi of his air power and heavy artillery capacity that are now providing him an edge over the freedom seekers.