OH, A SWELL TIME FOR THIS – AT 9:15 A.M. ET:  Mr. Obama seems determined to make us just another country.  Just folks, you know, no better, no worse, than anyone else.  There is an international price to be paid for his failure to keep America in the forefront as a leader.  It is being paid.  From Reuters:

DOHA/TRIPOLI – Britain pressured other NATO members to increase ground attacks in Libya on Wednesday, but cracks appeared in the alliance, as foreign ministers met in Qatar to try to break the deadlock in the civil war.

NATO divisions surfaced at the international “contact group” meeting – not only over arming the rebels and increasing air strikes, but also on creating a fund from frozen Libyan assets – to help the opposition attempting to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underlined the humanitarian disaster caused by the war, telling the meeting that up to 3.6 million people – or more than half the population – could need assistance.

Paris and London are increasingly frustrated that air strikes have neither tipped the balance of the war in favor of rebels trying to end Muammar Gaddafi’s 41-year rule, nor ended devastating shelling of the besieged city of Misrata.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe criticized NATO on Tuesday for not doing enough to stop the bombardment of the rebel-held port town, where hundreds of civilians are said to have died in more than six weeks of siege.

COMMENT:  History shows us that it's tough enough to win even a small war with an air campaign alone.  It is tougher when some of the countries you depend on in NATO just won't do much, if anything.  President Obama has said Gaddafi must go, yet Gaddafi stays, and digs in, and we wear our weakness on our sleeve.  Don't lead, cut defense budget.  The left must be thrilled.  The rest of us remember better days for our country.

April 14, 2011