Despite repeated assurances from President Obama and military leaders that the U.S. would not send uniformed military personnel into Libya, four U.S. service members arrived on the ground in Tripoli over the weekend.
According to Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby, the four unidentified troops are there working under the State Department’s chief of mission to assist in rebuilding the U.S. Embassy.
Kirby noted the embassy in Tripoli was badly damaged during the conflict between Muammar Qaddafi’s forces and the rebels. Two of the military personnel are explosive-ordnance experts who will be used to disable any explosives traps left in the embassy. The other two are “general security,” according to Kirby.
Kirby also made clear these troops are in no way part of a military operation on the ground. They are armed, however, if for some reason they need to protect themselves.
The troops are only expected to be there for a short while. After the assessment of the embassy is complete, they are expected to leave.
Obama assured Americans in March when the bombing campaign over Libya began that there would be no boots on the ground. From the East Room of the White House on March 18, he said: “The United States is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya.” Kirby wouldn’t say if there were plans to send more U.S. troops in the future.
Move along now…nothing to see here.
I’m surprised the State Dept pukes chose the US military to protect their precious asses. For the longest time, they chose Black Water for protection even when there was plenty of US Marines on hand to do the protecting.
#21 Drive by Poster
I believe the Black Water guards were for those State Dept. personnel away from the embassy.
From Wikipedia: “MSGs focus on the interior security of a diplomatic post’s building(s). In only the most extreme emergency situations are they authorized duties exterior to the building(s) or to provide special protection to the senior diplomatic officer off of the diplomatic compound. MSGs carry a certain level of diplomatic immunity in the performance of their official duties.”
And yes, once the US Embassy reopens, there will be a larger contingent of Marine Embassy Guards. They will also be stationed at any US Consulate offices opened away from Tripoli.
There “should have been” military spotters on the ground calling in the targets for the air strikes. Incompetent not to.
There should be qualified CIA spies all through the country sending intel to Langley. I would not be surprised if there are not any though and that intel comes from our Allies thru volunteers to their contacts.
Can’t be a world power without good intel. Heh, heh. What makes me think we even had spotters????
Never mind.
Silly Military. Trixs is for kids.
#17 Wait and see.
It might just turn out to be as successful as the change of government we engineered in Egypt and supported in Iran under Carter until we figured our a little to late that the locals didn’t see things our way.
An Islamic state run by Mullahs who hate the west. That was going to be a great victory for democracy and the progressive cause or that was what the progressives thought till they got it in the neck.
This reads like it was straight out of Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
How much money has been advanced to the new Libyan regime?
How are they supposed to pay it back?
The >cash up front was just a teaser.
The ordnance and weapons were obsolete crap just laying around in the US desert waiting for a buyer, and the Libyans fell for it.
They’re going to be paying top buck for surplus crap, plus they were probably loaned the money, by US, to buy said crap at a rate … to be determined later…
They’ll have to modernise the extraction facilities, the pipelines, the storage facilities, the crude refining (we dont want that pollution when it can stay in Libya,) and the shipping facilities.
Can you say: Construction contracts all around? Sure… I knew you could…
Add all of the security issues, and we’re going to rape the Hell out of them.
Of course we’ll lend them the money … our rates apply.
We don’t even want the oil. The EU can have that. (After all, the North Sea oilfields have run dry haven’t they? [Its a quid quo pro for having stopped Russia for 70 years.])
Libya ends up a corrupt regime, propped up by US arms, where the wealth and the power (to screw things up and people over,) ends up in the hands of a very few, very corrupt autocrats like in Saud… Or maybe we’ll set up a puppet democracy like in Iraq.
Where’s the next source of EU oil coming from? You got it, Libya.
Where’s the financing coming from? You got it, the US.(Why should the rich pay for your broken legs or your old age pension when that dough can be out to better use making them even richer?)
In # 24 deowll said: An Islamic state run by Mullahs who hate the west…
I only have one thing to say: Mossadegh.
This time, instead of installing a sha¯h like the US did in 1953 they’ve got a hypocritical populist paradigm of Nation Building in Iraq to follow and they know how much it costs in money and in lives.
As Tom Lehrer sang many many years ago in Send the
Marines, “For might makes right and ’till they’ve seen the light, they’ve got to be protected, all their rights respected, till somebody we like can get elected.
#24 – and look what we have now: Islam to be main source of legislation in Libya. As it comes straight from the horse’s mouth, it’s going to be a bit hard to spin that one.
The bozo you have in the White House seriously miscalculated this. He thought that Libyan public support for the terrorists was so overwhelming that it would take only a matter of days (not weeks) for Gaddafi’s regime to implode after the no fly zone empowered Libyans to rise up against the evil dictator.
From the ashes of the fallen regime would emerge… Libya! A robust liberal democracy forged of… well who knows what he was thinking? The crowning glory of a successful foreign policy; 0bama demonstrating how he can even do the Bush Doctrine better; 0bama spreading freedom to the world; 0bama the glorious! Take that, Republicans!
Instead, all he has to show for six months and a massive bombing and propaganda campaign, is barely and limply pushing a fledgling theocracy into power over a nonplussed majority. Way to go!
#27 so we have the Christian Taliban here as a main source government policy. Quit whining and have a corndog.
to #23 and #25, all one has to do is look at Kermit Roosevelt’s involvement with Iran to see that the whole situation in Libya reeks.
You think you’ve got problems – try being the Brits.
MI5 captured the current leader of the rebels and handed him over to the Libyan police to be tortured.
They released the government agent who blew up the Pan-Am flight ion return for BP getting an oil deal.
Now they have to try and make friends with the new lot. That’s going to take some serious spin-doctoring!
Perhaps recolonization is the answer.
There was far less concern and scrutiny over Reagan/Bush’s Iran-Contra actions. Four guys making an abandon embassy safe again, is hardly an army taking control of a country. If it were that easy, with that few men. Wars and nation building would cost tons of money and hundreds of lives. This is political nitpicking.