Libya

The U.S. government watched without interfering as the citizens of Tunisia and Egypt changed their governments. We have not dispatched troops to Yemen, Syria or Bahrain as their citizens demonstrate and die. Yet we have intervened in Libya in support of an opposition group that apparently not only is leaderless but is unable to generate support among the people in areas still under government control. Haven't our ill-advised adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan wasted enough lives and treasure?

Last week, Mitt Romney described Russia as America's "No. 1 geopolitical foe," prompting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to respond: "I think it's somewhat dated to be looking backwards instead of being realistic about where we agree, where we don't agree. " While Mr. Romney's basic sentiment is correct, Mrs. Clinton is also right in suggesting that Mr. Romney's characterization of Russia is both dated and diplomatically unproductive. Not to mention that it makes for awkward dealings later when you inevitably have to sit down across the table from someone like Vladimir Putin and ask him a favor.

President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday night about the military action in Libya was composed of 3,362 words. But there were two words conspicuously absent from the 30-minute address: "Oil" and "energy. " Back in the day, when politicians didn't use word like "interest" -- a word that appeared six times in Obama's speech -- as a euphemism, they spoke more plainly.  A quick history lesson (I know, I know, but I promise I'll keep this short): When Europeans were divvying up the deceased Ottoman Empire after World War I, they spoke openly of the desire to control oil fields as their reason for interest in African and Middle Eastern countries.

The Baltimore man who traveled to Libya in February at the start of a political uprising there said he was never in the country as a journalist but as a supporter of the revolutionaries. "I was supporting the revolution when I got captured. My mother didn't know, my girlfriend didn't know [the real reason for going]," Matthew VanDyke said Saturday night on his return to Baltimore. "I wasn't going to sit back and let this happen to people I care about. " Dressed in fatigues, VanDyke, 32, arrived at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport around 9 p.m. He was greeted by his mother, Sharon VanDyke, a retired principal of Federal Hill Preparatory School who lives in South Baltimore, as well as members of his church and friends.

Senator Barbara Mikulski has yet to publicize or state her position on U.S. military involvement in Libya. Considering her "No" vote on use of military force in Iraq in 2002 and her reliably consistent Democratic party line voting, one can only assume she is dodging the issue. But remaining mute is not why Maryland voters pay her the big taxpayer bucks, benefits and pension. It is an insult to our armed forces that Senator Mikulski has time to publish a press release on her website glorifying taxpayer largess of $10,331 to bring broadband Internet access to an elementary school.

The Obama administration has made the right call on Libya. Humanitarian assistance, especially protecting rebels and civilians from outright massacre, is the right thing to do and can help improve our standing in the Muslim world. Linda K. Brown, Baltimore

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.  Thankfully, Congress yesterday ended its collective denial and admitted it is completely irrelevant.  Senate leaders on Tuesday abandoned plans to force a vote on authorizing the U.S. war in Libya. You know, the war that the White House creatively calls a “kinetic military action” to avoid calling it a war. The one that’s included nearly 5,000 raids in which NATO shot missiles or dropped bombs.  “If the resolution we’re debating is debated and passed, it would not affect one iota what we’re doing in Libya,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, according to AP. The sad part is: He’s right.

A week and a half before the United States launched a war -- or whatever euphemism the administration is currently using while dropping bombs -- against Libya, General David Petraeus and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates joked around about invading the country. The administration is adamant in saying the bombing isn't a war, while the military is joking around about invasions. I guess not everyone is getting the talking points memos.   

I have noticed that over the past three weeks, every time President Obama said that military action may be needed in Libya, the naysayers shouted out that we have too many wars going already and we don't have a big enough stake in Libya to run up our war debt further. Fair enough. Now that the United Nations has declared the intention of organizing a multi-national military effort there, the very same naysayers are complaining that Mr. Obama isn't out there leading the charge. I have to ask these pundits what they would prefer the U.S. to do in this case, since attacking is the wrong answer, and not attacking is also the wrong answer.

Well what do you know! The United States of America is a team player in the battle against Moammar Gadhafi. Not the owner, the coach or even the quarterback; just a linebacker. What a great moment for the world to see the "united" nations work for peace and human freedom. And the hopeful idea that the United States becomes a deputy and not the sheriff. The message to the young people of the world must be very inspiring. Mr. Gadhafi and all the old thugs are on the way out. And the kids of the world did it. Now let us old timers step back and give them room.

Matthew VanDyke — the Baltimore writer and filmmaker who was jailed in Libya for nearly six months and then remained to aid rebels seeking to overthrow dictator Moammar Gadhafi — is scheduled to return home Saturday. VanDyke, 32, is set to arrive about 7 p.m. at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, said his mother, Sharon VanDyke. He will leave Cairo on Saturday morning and fly to John F. Kennedy International Airport before coming to Baltimore, she said.

The mob that could not contain itself or wait to put Moammar Gadhafi on trial - that instead presided over his bloody end - is cut from the same cloth as their former dictator. They cannot possibly preside over Libya's affairs gently or justly. Hence, your editorial calling Mr. Gadhafi's end a vindication of President Barack Obama's policy in Libya is premature ("Death of a tyrant," Oct. 21). The mob's behavior foreshadows bitter clan rivalries, sectarian violence and consolidation of power in Libya.

Matthew VanDyke - the 32-year-old Baltimorean who was jailed in Libya for nearly six months and then stayed on to join the rebels seeking to overthrow dictator Moammar Gadhafi - plans to come home "in a couple of weeks," said his mother, Sharon VanDyke, who lives in South Baltimore. She said that she spoke with her son for a few minutes around 9:45 a.m. Sunday, which was 3:45 in the afternoon in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. "They were having a big celebration today in Martyrs' Square," she said.

Even as Libya's rebels prepare to attack the last remaining strongholds of former dictator Muammar Gadhafi, disturbing reports have surfaced of widespread looting at weapons caches abandoned by his retreating forces. The regime's stockpiles included thousands of portable surface-to-air missiles that terrorists could use to shoot down civilian airliners, as well as chemical warheads containing lethal mustard gas. There's no immediate way of knowing exactly how many weapons have gone missing or where they are now, but it's urgent that the new transitional government and its NATO allies move quickly to secure as many of them as possible before they fall into the wrong hands.

With life slowly returning to normal in Tripoli after rebels broke the grip of government forces there last week, the decisions now being made by the National Transition Council will play a key role in determining how Libya's revolution unfolds. Former Libyan strongman Muammar Gadhafi apparently is on the run, but he remains a dangerous threat to the fledgling government. Meanwhile, tribal and regional divisions that have emerged among the various rebel factions in recent days could complicate efforts to unify the country even after the fighting ends.

Matthew VanDyke, the Baltimore man who went missing in Libya more than five months ago, re-emerged in Tripoli on Wednesday and told his family that he had been held captive by Moammar Gadhafi's government in one of the country's most notorious prisons. The 32-year-old VanDyke, who traveled to Libya in March to witness the then-fledging revolution for a book he is writing about the region, borrowed a cellphone and called his mother Wednesday afternoon. It was Sharon VanDyke's first contact with her son since he sent GPS coordinates March 13 that placed him near Brega.

United Nations sanctions against Libya, limited as they are, mark the Security Council's latest imposition of mandatory sanctions against a rogue regime. It also took action against Iraq for invading Kuwait in August 1990, and Iraq's defiance led to the gulf war and the crackdown on Iraqi weapons-making that has come after.In shutting down Libya's civil aviation link with the world, the Security Council has sought a punishment to fit the crime of airliner sabotage. The world community demands that Libya produce for trial the six suspects in the destruction of an American plane over Scotland in 1988 and a French airliner over Niger the next year with a combined death toll of 441. Since the suspects are Libyan intelligence officers, the dictator Muammar el Kadafi must want to loyally protect his agents and prevent their testifying.

The U. N. Security Council's resolution authorizing the use of force in Libya was the easy part. Now, who will direct military action? Which nations will participate? The U.S. should not be involved in directing the action. It must be a team effort with our country only helping out in the effort. Richard L. Lelonek, Baltimore

Sharon VanDyke's phone rang Monday afternoon, but after quickly dispensing with the call, she said, sadly, "Well, it wasn't Matthew. " The wait continues for the retired principal, who has searched for the past five months for her son, a 32-year-old writer and photographer who went to Libya to chronicle the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi but is believed to have been imprisoned with rebel forces. Now, with those insurgents on the brink of toppling Gadhafi, VanDyke is bracing for whatever that means for her son. "I've been more worried in the last 24 to 48 hours than ever," she said Monday, after a mostly sleepless several days of monitoring the events in Libya from her South Baltimore rowhouse.

Col. Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year misrule of the oil-rich African nation of Libya appears finally to be nearing an end. The rebels' surprisingly swift advance into the capital, Tripoli, over the weekend brought large parts of the government's last remaining stronghold under their control, with only isolated pockets of resistance around Mr. Gadhafi's fortified compound. Barring any unforeseen reversal of fortunes, a total military collapse of the regime could occur imminently. These events have heartened the rebel groups that have been battling the dictator over the last six months of often inconclusive fighting, which likely would have ended quite differently without NATO airstrikes on Mr. Gadhafi's forces and Western military training and equipment.