The big question tonight that remains: will the United States or its allies arm these Libyan freedom fighters? "Reuters" also reports today U.S. officials have said that Saudi Arabia and Qatar, whose leaders despise Gadhafi, have indicated a willingness to supply Libyan rebels -- I call them freedom fighters -- with weapons.
Earlier this week during a press briefing Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, was asked a very simple question:
"Do you know who the opposition is, and does it matter to you?" "We're not talking with the opposition," Gortney responded. "We have -- we would like a much better understanding of the opposition. We don't have it. So yes, it does matter to us, and we're trying to fill in those gaps, knowledge gaps."
Knowledge gaps, that's political double talk for " I have no idea," Maybe the Admiral should ask Ed Schultz, because he believes himself to be the expert.
On Tuesday Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s supreme allied commander, said in testimony before Congress that U.S. intelligence suggested there may be “flickers” of al-Qaeda and Hezbollah in the rebels.
We have seen flickers in the intelligence of potential al-Qaeda, Hezbollah — we’ve seen different things. But at this point, I don’t have detail sufficient to say that there’s a significant al-Qaeda presence or any other terrorist presence in and among these folks.
So the general says we don't have enough detail to determine if there is a significant terrorist presence amongst the Libyan rebels -- which also means the information is not enough to determine if there isn't a large number.
Schultz feels very strongly that we should give weapons to these rebels, even though at this point we have no idea who they are:
After all that, does the world community stand by and watch the freedom fighters get crushed? The president pledged that there would be no U.S. troops on the ground in Libya. Today, we learned that CIA operatives are on the ground. What does that all mean?
Still, it looks like the freedom fighters’ only shot for survival at this point is a real injection of military hardware that they say they desperately need. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today said that there was still no decision on arming the rebels.
Nobody wants another situation like the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in 1980s. Whether or not we arm rebels, freedom fighters, whatever you want to call them, is a very hard decision.
But I think we have to do it. It is a moral decision at this point.
Schultz is right--it is a moral decision: is it right to arm people without knowing their ultimate intentions? History teaches us that the moral answer is NO!
At the end of the Carter administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski pushed the government into arming the Mujadhideen of Afghanistan who were fighting against the Soviets. The unexpected result of his policy was the creation of the Taliban and its alliance with al Qaeda.
After the Soviets withdrew, the Mujahideen who got their initial financing during the Carter Administration thanks to Brzezinski began to fight each other for power. After several years of civil war, a new armed group was formed from one group of Mujahideen with the backing of Pakistan. Known as the Taliban, this radical group entered the fray. By 1996, with backing from the Pakistani ISI, the Military of Pakistan, and al-Qaeda, the Taliban had controlled most of the country.
At the same time, Sudan, which had been the home of al Qaeda, told bin Laden he would never be welcome to return. The Taliban offered bin Laden the opportunity to re-locate its headquarters to Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda enjoyed the Taliban's protection and build up its network from there and the rest is a very bloody history.
Today we are involved in two wars that can be directly linked to arming a group of "freedom fighters" that we knew little about. Those "freedom fighters" became violators of human rights and terrorists of the worst kind.
Ed Schultz can't know yet whether or not these Libyan rebels are freedom fighters, our own military leadership is still trying to fill in the "information gaps." He doesn't know if weapons supplied to the rebels will someday be used to kill our American heroes like the weapons given to the nascent Taliban. But that doesn't concern Ed, all he really cares about is blindly following President Obama and his progressive policies, even if they lead to the creation of a new terrorist network.
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