Hearing on Wednesday on Libya at 10 am

[karynnj]

The witnesses will be:

The Honorable Richard N. Haass
President
Council on Foreign Relations
New York, NY

Tom Malinowski
Washington Director
Human Rights Watch
Washington, DC

Dr. Dirk J. Vandewalle
Associate Professor of Government
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH

This should be an interesting discussion as we know the first two were on opposite sides.

[Luftmensch067]

1. Fantastic

Thanks for letting us know!

[karynnj]

2. On now

[karynnj]

3. Rather weird hearing

Because the decision to be part of the no fly zone was already made and because it is hard to see where this was going, this was a pretty strange hearing.

Kerry and Lugar repeated their views on whether the US should have gotten involved - and they are just where they were. The witnesses included Haase, who is against it. He had a list of conditions he thought had to be met before it was worth intervening in "a war of choice". Without pointing out where it failed, he said that Libya did not meet the criteria. The spokesman for Human Rights spoke of the impending massacre. The third witness, from Dartmouth College spoke of the history of Libya - and Gaddafi.

The most continuous moment was caused by Senator Kerry. He spoke of how there is a cycle - at least since Clinton - of Democrats backing Democratic Presidents and not supporting Republicans and visa versa and said it was bad for foreign policy. Senator Corker took exception to this - saying it offended him. He said that though Kerry might have done that, he didn't - pointing out that he worked with Kerry on START. Kerry spoke of meaning voices in the media on each side and kind of apologized. (The fact is that there was a lot of truth in what Kerry said - on both sides - but it likely was something he shouldn't have said.)

[wisteria]

5. There was a lot of truth in what he said, and sometimes it needs to be heard.

Even given an exception or two, and someones hurt feelings.

[karynnj]

4. Boston Globe coverage - mostly emphasizing Hasse

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2011/04/kerry_holds_sec.html?comments=all#readerComm