Susan Milligan

Muammar Qadhafi Foolish for Mocking Women

September 7, 2011 RSS Feed Print

The NATO-led action in Libya appears, fortunately, to have been successful. The rebels are largely in control of the country, deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi's family is in exile, and the crazed leader himself is on the run. And no U.S. soldier had to fight on the ground to aid the rebels, a relief to those who were worried about getting the United States involved in a third expensive, bloody war.

But while the achieved goal was to avoid putting American troops on the ground, there is one exception that would be wonderful to witness. It would be great if it were a U.S. soldier who tracked down and captured Qadhafi. And it would be even better if it were a female soldier. [7 Challenges for Post-Qadhafi Libya]

Qadhafi, speaking from an undisclosed location, was defiant recently in announcing he would not surrender. As he so offensively noted:

If Libya goes up in flames, who will be able to govern it? Let it burn. We will fight in every valley, in every street, in every oasis, and every town. We won't surrender again; we are not women; we will keep fighting.

Now, there's a provocation—one that might cause thousands of peace-loving women everywhere to take up guns and head to Libya just to remind Qadhafi that women are not so powerless. It's bad enough that the Libyan strongman had some bizarre crush on former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (who, to be sure, could have made short work of Qadhafi all on her own). But to deliberately question the strength of women's will—well, that's foolish. Never mind the brave female soldiers who represent the U.S. military. Has he never seen an American eighth-grade girls' soccer game? He has no idea how determined American females are. His remarks are almost worse than those of the Kuwaitis who complained that the female U.S. soldiers who went to the Middle East under Operation Desert Storm were inappropriately wearing T-shirts. So sorry, gentlemen. Perhaps you'd like to defend your own country next time, instead of relying on the Americans? [See a collection of political cartoons on the turmoil in the Middle East.]

Qadhafi will soon be finished. Let's hope that in defeat and capture, he is met by throngs of women to witness his final humiliation.

Tags:
Muammar Qadhafi,
Condoleezza Rice,
military,
Libya

Reader Comments Read all comments (3)

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

I don't think it should be a US female who offs him - It would be better for the whole world if it is Libyan one.

Vicki of OR 8:02PM September 07, 2011

You've got to be kidding...

So this is what gets Susan Milligan's attention about Libya???

Kaddafi's rant?

Not Obama lawyer-shopping to indeed INVOLVE US IN A THIRD WEALTH-GUZZLING WAR in the midst of unprecedented economic turmoil and continued high unemployment at home and his complete bull in calling it a 'kinetic military action' -- and congress rolling over on their bellies for him outside of Paul and Kucinich and a few others?

There is something truly and seriously wrong with Susan Milligan.

Now maybe we know why Milligan's only take on big squirming toad liar Anthony Weiner was that the media treated him 'inexcusably' -- his tie to democratic women Hillary and Huma. Her accurately calling him a BSTL would be saying to the two: "He's a lump."

Maybe that's her deal with Obama as well. Milligan calling him a BSTL for his non-war Libyan war would be saying to democratic woman Michelle: "He's a lump on this one."

Makes me wonder how low Milligan's bar goes. If a good friend of hers was married to an abusive guy who happened to be a democrat office holder would she say to her friend: "He's a lump. Get free of him. Crash at my place and stay as long as you want till you get your new life together."

I really don't think Milligan is the champion of women's rights and equality as she tries to portray herself.

dom youngross of OH 6:27PM September 07, 2011

Many people are buzzing about an article at truthout.org by one Mike Lofgren, a longtime Republican staff aide on Capitol Hill who just couldn’t take the crazy anymore, left his job, and produced this buzzy (and quite well-written) lamentation about his party’s tactics and goals. If you haven’t read it, you must

The Lofgren piece is full of harsh observations and accusations, but here’s just a little sampling:

• The debt-ceiling debate was an act of “political terrorism,” in which the GOP concocted a crisis and used it to ensure that the party's unprecedented demands were met. He writes: “Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care.”

• The August FAA reauthorization fight was another instance such of hostage-taking: “Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers, and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel—how prudent is that?—in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization.”

• The GOP plan to discredit government in the people’s eyes is very conscious: “A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.”

• As for belief as opposed to tactics, the party basically really cares only about the rich. Actually, Lofgren doesn’t say “basically.” He says “solely and exclusively.” And he explains how they’ve camouflaged this with talk of protecting small businesses and so on.

There is much, much more. He’s not very happy either about his party’s militarism, its cynical use of religion, its total opposition to doing anything about the environment, and other matters, but most

programs so they will be there in the future."

Eggman of CO 1:42PM September 07, 2011

Susan Milligan

Susan Milligan

Susan Milligan is a political and foreign affairs writer and contributed to a biography of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy.

advertisement

Cartoons

Robert Schlesinger

Obama's Mixed-Bag Week

The Obama camp can celebrate Dick Lugar defeat, but should worry about the Scott Walker recall.

Mary Kate Cary

Obama Attacks as Economic Cliff Looms

The president can't afford to talk about the economy, but with a 2013 fiscal time bomb approaching, the rest of us can't afford not to.

Latest Video

advertisement