The White House Strategy For Libya (A Commentary)

Inside The Intervention -- Steven Metz, New Republic

There’s a clear logic behind Obama’s Libya strategy—but that doesn’t mean it will succeed.

Strategy is a strange beast. Up close—as it is unfolding—even a good strategy can appear muddled, confused, and indecisive. Its logic only becomes clear over time. President Obama’s Libya strategy demonstrates this. It has drawn howls of criticism from across the political spectrum, most of the “muddled, confused, and indecisive” variant. But, when dissected, it does have an internal logic.

Put simply, Obama’s Libya strategy is designed to avoid the most undesirable outcomes rather than optimize the chances of a desired outcome, to do something without “owning” the conflict, to maintain maximum flexibility as the situation evolves, and to do all of this in the face of powerful constraints. The question is whether this strategy can actually work.

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My Comment: Trying to fight a war on the cheap .... if President Obama can pull this off .... kudos to him. But my gut is telling me that this is a wishful thinking .... that this war .... like most wars .... will evolve into a conflict that will take a long time to resolve, and sap our resources even further than what was originally planned.