What Do Lowellians Think

The Lowell Sun had a piece by reporter Lyle Moran on what locals think about the ongoing war with Libya.♠  As an aside, I think the headline, "Locals divided on Libya escalation", is misleading.  But, the reporter is not responsible for the headline.  My gripe is that the real escalation is yet to come.

The article notes that both of our US Senators support UN Resolution 1973.  Then it goes on to quote Representative Niki Tsongas:

"I am concerned that our military action in Libya lacks a clear objective," she said. "It is critically important that our commitment there not extend beyond the scope of U.N. Resolution 1973, and under no circumstances should American ground troops be inserted into that country."

And well she should be.

The Sun "Question of the Day" misses an important point.

When should the US military involvement in Libya end?

• When Gadhafi is toppled
• When rebels seize control
• Now

The problem is, having offended Colonel Gaddafi, we face the real possibility of him bringing this home to us, as he did back in the late-1980s, as with blowing up Pan Am 103.  This action, and the night club bombing in Berlin in 1986 were in response to US actions.  We can not let go of this until Colonel Gaddafi is not only out of power but no longer in a position to plan, encourage or finance terrorist acts.  The word to keep in mind is "blowback".  That, and this (source redacted):

My fear is that Gaddafi may not go, greatly diminishing Obama's standing, reputation and ability to lead as he did before making that statement.

That wouldn't be good either.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Remember, articles in The Sun go away after a while, to a different place.  I will not be updating their links unless I am bedridden and have read every book in the house.