On the whole, it is better for regional powers like France to take the lead on this. Let the French Foreign Legion take the hit when it comes time for the locals who screamed for your help to turn on their foreign saviors like rabid badgers. La France certainly has the qualifications: they spanked G/Q/Kadaffi twice when he got too big for his britches in Chad.
The unofficial words is that certain parties--SAS, Egypt's Unit 777 spec-ops unit, and the Christians in Action SOG--are already in-theater with laser designators and SATCOMS. The US "doesn't have forces" in Libya just like there ain't nobody but us chickens over the Durand line in Pakistan.
Indirectly, US influence may have been critical in Egypt's revolution. The junior and mid-level officers who said "no" to pulling a Tianamen on the protesters in Tahrir Square were the products of decades of US military training and aid. Mubarak was, essentially, there on the military's sufferance anyway.
As for the other news? Glad to hear about the good things in your life. NTC should be interesting. I picked up a book called "Dragons at War" that dealt with a US infantry unit that cycled through the NTC in the early 80's. Quite fascinating reading about late Cold-War era assumptions of conventional warfare.
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Date: 2011-03-20 10:33 am (UTC)The unofficial words is that certain parties--SAS, Egypt's Unit 777 spec-ops unit, and the Christians in Action SOG--are already in-theater with laser designators and SATCOMS. The US "doesn't have forces" in Libya just like there ain't nobody but us chickens over the Durand line in Pakistan.
Indirectly, US influence may have been critical in Egypt's revolution. The junior and mid-level officers who said "no" to pulling a Tianamen on the protesters in Tahrir Square were the products of decades of US military training and aid. Mubarak was, essentially, there on the military's sufferance anyway.
As for the other news? Glad to hear about the good things in your life. NTC should be interesting. I picked up a book called "Dragons at War" that dealt with a US infantry unit that cycled through the NTC in the early 80's. Quite fascinating reading about late Cold-War era assumptions of conventional warfare.