“America relies on cruise missiles for conducting its relations with the rest of the world. These are outdated methods and bankrupt programs that have no future.”
This is a comment made by the late Moammar Gadhafi in 2000.
Now, we have Kerry in 2013:
“Several dozen cruise missiles, perhaps, and a day or two of strikes is probably enough to achieve the immediate purpose of restoring deterrents of weapons of mass destruction use and hopefully getting countries like Iran and and North Korea to notice as they pursue, or consider pursuing nuclear ambitions that President Obama’s red lines to them still mean something.”
Yes, there is a red line for North Korea. Don’t you feel safer knowing that? Oh, by the way, that red line has already been violated.
Gadhafi was correct about the cruise missile diplomacy of the U.S. Was he also right that it’s outdated and bankrupt? Evaluate the success of U.S. cruise missile launches. The strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998 by Bill Clinton didn’t prevent 9/11 or a later invasion of Afghanistan by the U.S. or the continuing missile strikes in Pakistan. The U.S. launched over 725 Tomahawk missiles against Iraq. A new era of peace and prosperity has not appeared in their wake. The U.S. and Great Britain assaulted Libya with over 160 Tomahawk missiles. There was no known threat in Libya to begin with. Cruise missiles were used in the Kosovo war. For a critical appraisal of that episode, see here.
6:01 pm on September 1, 2013
