PrintMarch 22, 2011
R2P starts at home
R2P stands for Responsibility to Protect and is the doctrine behind the West's intervention in Libya. It means that the international community is duty bound to protect civilians and President Obama is one of its leading proponents.
Obama should understand that his first responsibility is to protect American civilians, not Libyans or anyone else. He obviously doesn't understand this because the intervention in Libya endangers American civilians wherever they are, the Middle East, the American homeland, anywhere and everywhere. Anti-American hatred and disgust is rife in the Middle East and the Islamic world to begin with. The minute the first American bomb fell on Libya these feelings were stoked by Islamists and Jihadists and will be used by them to provoke and justify violence against American civilians around the world. Obama should have understood this and the fact that he didn't is the just the most recent measure of his incompetence and an abdication of his responsibility to place the protection of Americans above all.
Don't think that Islamists and Jihadists will hesitate to attack, maim and murder American civilians either, just as they don't hesitate to attack, maim and murder civilians of other countries, Israel being but one example. The historical record is beyond dispute and the Libyan intervention simply gives them one more excuse. We can expect to hear the first reports of attacks on American civilians resulting from the intervention any time now.
Of course Obama's responsibility to protect goes beyond American civilians and extends to the United States itself. Even before Libya he has failed miserably in both areas. Islamists and Jihadists have struck or attempted to strike on many occasions in the homeland since he took office and it is only a matter of time before an attempt at large-scale mass murder succeeds. The Islamization of the country is also well and truly underway and its values and institutions are under constant attack. The U.S. is far weaker and more vulnerable militarily and economically than it was before he was elected as well, which has emboldened its enemies and discouraged its allies and placed its very existence in jeopardy. The intervention in Libya has just exacerbated a very bad situation, that's all.
America can't stand any more of this and neither can the rest of the free world. What Obama has done to date is bad enough. The damage that could occur if he is allowed to serve out the rest of his term is incalculable and could be irreversible. Impeachment is in order and proceedings should begin immediately. There are ample and compelling grounds and time is of the essence.
Responsibility to protect. Obama doesn't know the meaning of those words, not as far as Americans and America are concerned anyway.
