Excerpt on Libya
JIM LEHRER (Editor, Newshour): David, does President Obama deserve any praise or credit for what happened in Libya?
DAVID BROOKS, New York Times columnist: I think he does, and a lot more than he's getting, actually.
You have to remember, when the -- Gadhafi was marching on the rebels and threatening to massacre them, a lot of people in this country wanted to do nothing. A lot of people in Europe who were more upset about it just wanted to have sort of a no-fly zone.
And Obama has pushed them more aggressively than they wanted to go, so it wasn't just a no-fly zone. Were -- we actually ended up helping the rebels. We ended up helping the goal of regime change. And people have criticized whether it is was slow enough or fast enough, whether it was more aggressive or not.
But I think, more than anybody outside the country, I think Obama does deserve a lot of credit for showing that you can do an intervention reasonably well, achieve at least the first step of your objective, and do some large good for that country and potentially the region.
JIM LEHRER: Do you agree with that, Mark?
MARK SHIELDS, syndicated columnist: I do. I agree that the president's getting no credit for it. The irony, it seems to me...
JIM LEHRER: Yes. Why? Why is he not getting any credit?
MARK SHIELDS: Well, I think because, when the economy is bad, the economy is the only issue. I really do. I think American opinion or interest in Libya has been episodic at best.
There was a lot at the beginning. But the people who most strenuously supported intervention now refuse to -- mostly Republicans -- refuse to give the president, the prime intervener, any credit. And most of the people who opposed the intervention were Democrats.
So they're reluctant to -- seem to be reluctant to crow, although they do acknowledge the president's role. And it is a case of NATO working. The stalemate that was -- loomed is over. A despot has been removed -- 17,000 sorties were flown. You know, it's a...
JIM LEHRER: Seventeen thousand sorties, that's a lot of hardware.
MARK SHIELDS: Seventeen thousand. That's a lot. It sure is. It sure is.
JIM LEHRER: Yes. Yes.
MARK SHIELDS: And the French and the English and the Americans.
So, I -- you know, I don't think he's going to get a political bump out of it. But he can point to the fact that there is no Osama bin Laden and there is no Moammar Gadhafi. And it happened on his watch.
JIM LEHRER: Yes.
Why is it that the Republicans don't give him credit?
(LAUGHTER)
JIM LEHRER: Oh, is that...
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID BROOKS: Do you have to ask that question?
JIM LEHRER: I can -- tell me, David.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID BROOKS: Well, you know, there's the obvious political thing.
JIM LEHRER: Yes.
DAVID BROOKS: But, Republicans were not convinced about this either. There was a lot of opposition from Republicans as well.
And a lot of the Republicans who were more inclined to support doing something, intervening, like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, thought it was handled poorly.
JIM LEHRER: They wanted more. McCain and Graham wanted -- they did want some boots on the ground, if necessary.
DAVID BROOKS: Right. They wanted to be more aggressive.
JIM LEHRER: Yes.
DAVID BROOKS: So they had some quibbles with the -- how it was done.
JIM LEHRER: Yes. Right.
DAVID BROOKS: And so, as usual with Obama, he was stuck there in the middle, and without anybody.
But I do think, it wasn't only him being right in calling for something pretty aggressive. It wasn't only him being right in calling for regime change. I think Secretary Clinton has to get a lot of credit for what was done at the U.N., the way the NATO alliance was handled.
You know, I do -- you know, I'm not convinced they have done everything right in regards to the Arab spring, but this is a clear moment when the U.S. played a very constructive role. And I -- they deserve the credit. Nobody will give it to them now, but in a couple of years, people will acknowledge this was a good thing.
"People will acknowledge this was a good thing." Now that's an understatement.
No comments:
Post a Comment