For $1 Billion, One Dictator

[dkf]

Call him the billion-dollar man. One billion for one dictator.

According to the Pentagon, that was the cost to U.S. taxpayers for Muammar el-Qaddafi’s head: $1.1 billion through September, the latest figure just out of the Defense Department.

And that’s just for the Americans.

The final totals will take some time to add up, and still do not include the State Department, CIA, and other agencies involved or other NATO and participating countries. Vice President Joe Biden said that the U.S. "spent $2 billion total and didn’t lose a single life." NATO does not track the operational costs to each member country, but the funds directly taken from a common NATO account for Libya operations have totaled about $7.4 million per month for electronic warfare capabilities and $1.1 million per month for headquarters and command staff, a NATO spokesman said.

http://nationaljournal.com/for-1-billion-one-dictator-muammar-el-qaddafi-20111020

[NYC_SKP]

1. Hey, Qaddaafi Cost Us One Hell of a Lot Less Than Bush/Cheney.

I'll take it!

:patriot:

[xchrom]

2. No politician EVER has the right to talk about we

Don't have the money for this or that after the last 11 years.

[Mimosa]

46. Xchrom, I remember D.U. back in 2004-2008

Wars weren't as popular.

The USA now ALWAYS has enough resources for war-like interventions, mercenary hirings, weapons developments.

BUT we don't have enough money to pay for schools, health care, infrastructructure, jobs for those who need jobs..

You know how it goes. PRIORITIES.

Who's suffering next, where? (Do not apply for intervention unless you have oil, natural gas or strategic mineral resources)

[pinboy3niner]

3. You may have outdone yourself

With more than 30,000 Libyans dead and far more wounded and far more suffering and grieving their losses, you turn once again to the profit-and-loss "bottom line" and worry about the price tag while pretending this was all about one man's head.

Wish I could unrec more than once. :puke:

[dkf]

4. Uganda next...

Endless opportunities for military adventures.

[pinboy3niner]

6. What's your cost estimate on that?

:puke:

[dkf]

11. If we keep on finding new wars to fight I'm sure we can exceed Iraq/Afghanistan.

[pinboy3niner]

25. Nice evasion

Color me surprised...NOT.

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. dkf loves Qaddafi and the LRA

Any opportunity to attack Obama is a good opportunity, regardless of the bedfellows you pick up fleas from along the way.

Talk about a complete loss of credibility.

[dkf]

33. No I just want to stay out of it.

Let the rebels win their own freedom, then we don't have to be responsible for their behavior either.

[ellisonz]

47. "Let the rebels win their own freedom, then we don't have to be responsible for their behavior"

Good thing the French Monarchy disagreed with that judgment in 1778.

[Tx4obama]

26. Do you think the rape and murder of women and children should continue in Uganda?

If the USA should be anywhere, we SHOULD be in Uganda to help the madness there!

[dkf]

35. I'm sure we could find these situations in a whole lot more places around the world.

What happens when we leave Afghanistan? Or should we stay forever?

Geez are you guys all supportive of taking down Saddam Hussein now?

[pinboy3niner]

38. :eyes:

Nice twisting and putting words in others' mouths. But you weren't looking for an honest discussion, were you? Now we're all Saddam lovers? That was really bad, even for you, lol!

[TBF]

52. Somehow we only find them when there is oil involved.

:shrug:

[Mimosa]

37. How about we go to war against countries which tolerate sex tourism?

Thailand?

[Tx4obama]

44. How about we go after the terrorist rebel armies that rape/murder/mutilate

young children and women first.
The ones that are attacking whole villages.
The ones that are reigning havoc on 100s of thousands of people.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33310&Cr=LRA&Cr1

[Mimosa]

48. How about human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia?

Executions of gays, abuses of workers, women..? A dictatoral family in power forever...?

[Feron]

58. We do have a base in Bahrain.

Yet human rights violations continue there unimpeded...But hey at least the oil is secure.

Anyhow the U.S. is not the world police. We need to shut down bases and bring them all home.

Not to mention that a lot of these tinpot dictators are backed by the U.S. to begin with. Investments that keep money flowing into the pockets of the MIC.

[Modern_Matthew]

7. Why is it our responsibility? nt

[Tx4obama]

27. Because we are decent human beings.

When there is mass murder, no matter where it is, we should do what we can to stop it.

[gateley]

8. Apparently responding to people who ask for help isn't

something Americans do any more. :puke:

I unrec'd for you, pinboy3niner, so you got your wish. :)

[pinboy3niner]

12. Thanks, gateley

I owe you one. :toast:

[dkf]

13. Do you really know what you are getting?

Next thing we know we will have to be toppling this crew.

We don't have a very good track record of picking good guys.

[gateley]

24. Do you mean who we're getting in Libya?

And no disagreement from me that we pick the wrong people, but I'm hopeful this time WE won't be doing the picking.

[dkf]

32. When you topple the old guys, the new guys are on you...in this case us.

[gateley]

43. We didn't topple them this time, though. This wasn't a slick

CIA-backed coup with our guy waiting in the wings. Or am I missing the point here?

[Youth Uprising]

30. Ronald Reagan's support of the Mujaheddin came to bite us in the ass.

I wonder if these same people would have been supportive of "freedom fighters" against the oppressive Soviets, like Osama Bin Laden, back in the 1980s.

[ManiacJoe]

54. Not the support, the abandoning.

[Modern_Matthew]

5. What's in it for our citizens? I'd rather that go to LIHEAP...

With a brutal Winter on the way.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

9. sickening...but wouldn't post....giving repukes fuel. nt

[Youth Uprising]

10. Fucking hell!

That's money we could have used on taking care of our own citizens. Why are we putting social safety net programs on the table while we waste money on this shit? We're in a fucking recession and I do not trust the motivations of this government. If we didn't live in an imperialistic nation and if we weren't in the economic mess we're in then maybe I would support this action but not like this.

[Danse]

14. Before and after pictures

Before and After pics of NATO's "Liberation" of Libya

http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.com/2011/10/misrata-libya-befor-and-after.html

[pinboy3niner]

19. Why no link to pics from Gaddafi's months-long siege of Misrata?

And why no mention that both sides were shelling in Sirte?

Never mind. I already know the answer.

[polly7]

15. Because the spoils of Libya will pay far beyond what was spent

to get them. NATO isn't stupid. There is no way in hell they'd 'intervene' unless they'd already figured out the profit.

[Danse]

16. Yep

Spot on. People who think this aggression had anything to do with "humanitarian" concerns need to study up on American foreign policy. OF COURSE it's about money and power. 1 billion is a small price to pay for the spoils of Libya.

[Youth Uprising]

18. I doubt any of that money is going to go towards the social safety net or impact

the average citizen in any positive way.

[joshcryer]

20. 3 days worth of oil pumping.

Libya isn't worried about the monetary cost of war, as pinboy3niner has pointed out. The lives lost are far more important.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. How many trillions did we spend in Iraq?

If we're going to take a dictator out who's slaughtering his people Obama showed the right way to do it.

[aquart]

21. We've spent more for less.

[dkf]

22. And apparently we will keep on doing what we are doing.

But hey at least we are keeping the MIC employed.

[Andrew_Writer]

23. 6 million

No its to free 6 million, and what a great deal!!!

[L. Coyote]

28. Not that anyone bothers to calculate interest anymore --- the price will only be know later

After interest, how much?

I'll include the political price being unknown too. It is much easier to start wars than to end them, and this one, like all others, may not end until ever blood feud and revenge impulse is settled or satisfied! Sometimes wars only get going in earnest after one side says, "Mission Accomplished". So, how much money again??

[pinboy3niner]

34. How much will that break down to, per Libyan head saved?

And what interest rate will we use? :sarcasm:

[joshcryer]

40. Those Libyan rats, costed the Libyan economy something like $70 billion.

Money is everything, donthcha know. Silly civil war ruining everything for the venture capitalists. :sarcasm:

[pinboy3niner]

41. The germs in Syria scoff

They'll top that without even trying! :)

[L. Coyote]

49. Ask not a hypothetical, ask instead "How much it will cost per Libyian killed?"

Wars kill people and that can be counted, lest we forget the actuality of war while counting the hypothetical lives saved by killing people!

[riverwalker]

29. Freedom for 6 million Libyans

....Priceless.

[L. Coyote]

55. ... Hopefully

unless, of course, this was all about OIL!!

[Youth Uprising]

36. Wasn't Libya on the Neo-Con hit list?

I think it was Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, and Lebanon, if I'm not mistaken. I hope this supposed foiled Iranian terror plot isn't a harbinger of things to come.

[Mimosa]

45. Yes, I remember it well

to borrow from 'GiGi'..

[L. Coyote]

50. Reagan got his anus in a twist over Libya, after they gave refuge to his new enemies in Lebanon

Since Reagan started bombing women and children, the bee hive has yet to settle down.

Reagan created a lot of enemies using military attacks as diplomacy.
Friggin' cowboy didn't know reality from make-believe westerns. :rofl:

[mark7sys]

39. If only all our other governmental endeavors could be as cost effective as this one!

I wonder how much the American Revolution cost in terms of current dollars?

... And what is the current value of France's investment in that revolution?


:patriot:

[Rex]

42. Well he was evidently worth one federal election cycle.

How much did Saddam cost us dkf?

[Shagbark Hickory]

51. Could have built a number of community health centers for that.

The wasted opportunities just makes me want to cry.

[dionysus]

53. don't you have some bankers to support somewhere?

[kentuck]

56. Hell, they had $9 billion disappear in Iraq...

Nobody knows where it went??

[backscatter712]

57. The Libyans aren't complaining...

Hey, if the Libyans are happy with the outcome, I'm happy.