From McPaper:
President Obama should take pride in the expected downfall of Moammar Gadhafi, the Middle East‘s longest-reigning dictator. Still, it is ironic that a president who ran on promises to revitalize diplomacy has achieved his greatest successes by embracing the military
So what really is “smart power”? Using the military which works or using diplomacy with tools like Gadhafi, which the headline describes as “a fool’s errand”?
I’d offer “smart power” (a hideous diplo-speak bumper sticker) is really using the right tool for the job.
Related (but unanswered) “smart power” questions include: why was the U.S. part of this drill to begin with? Why isn’t this ‘action’ covered under the War Powers Act? What endstate are we hoping to achieve? If Libya, why not Syria or any other number of nations/locations?
Songs of Space & Nuclear War 