Strategy for Libya: Obama Fears Setback on the Home Front

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Strategy for Libya: Obama Fears Setback on the Home Front

Strategy for Libya: Obama Fears Setback on the Home Front
Der Spiegel, Germany
By Gregor Peter Schmitz
Translated By Hannah Keet
23 April 2011
Edited by Heidi Kaufmann

At first, he just wanted to bomb Libya for a short period of time. Then the Europeans were told to lead. But now, Obama seems to support a stronger involvement in Libya. The U.S. president is deploying combat drones against Gadhafi's troops and sending money to the rebels — a dilemma in the coming U.S. election campaign.

Jay Carney, U.S. President Barack Obama's press secretary, wants to look ahead, toward re-election. On board Air Force One, the president’s aircraft, Carney said that his boss was feeling good during the first election campaign appearances on the West Coast. He added that speaking directly with his supporters builds Obama up. "It gives him more energy.”* But the reporters diminished the joy of the happy message. They wanted to know how the president is getting his information about Libya now that U.S. involvement is growing again. Carney's good mood vanished, ultimately because he now has to talk about murdered Americans. Only Wednesday, two U.S. war correspondents were killed in Misrata.

Even tougher questions could soon threaten Obama himself. Nevertheless, the U.S. seems to want to be more active in Libya again. The decision to use Predator combat drones against dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s ground troops and to send $25 million to the rebels for logistical support, holds great risks for the White House team. Obama could become more and more entangled in a conflict that he can score little or no points with at home. In the meantime, the majority of Americans are against the military operation; they are not sure about the aim of the mission.

There is also growing criticism that U.S. involvement could have unintentional consequences. Stephen Walt, a Harvard political science professor, wrote in his blog on the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy’s website that: "This situation is a textbook illustration of what one might call the Intervention Paradox." Walt's theory is that because the Western states did not see their vital interests as threatened, they only half-heartedly committed themselves — for example, with distanced airstrikes or drone attacks instead of with their own troops. This is dragging out the operation and will ultimately do more harm than good to the people in Libya.

After the decision to use drones, Robert Gates, U.S. secretary of defense, highlighted that Obama is still explicitly ruling out the use of ground troops. But airstrikes are already too much for many Americans; they want a swift end to the mission. Nevertheless, Obama had originally assured his citizens that it would just be a short involvement. The president is confronted with a dilemma because of this promise, as Secretary Gates unintentionally made clear. In answer to the journalist’s question of how long the operation would last, Gates answered with: “Nobody knows the answer to that question.”