Gaddafi Raptured

Muammar Gaddafi was killed today in his hometown of Sirte, leaving a single son alive in the Libyan desert. This week the TNC , the governing council, expressed alarm that Gaddafi had been recruiting African mercenaries to create an insurgency against the new government. But this was not to be . The actual details about his death are still murky because of early reports that he had been wounded and taken alive. While problems exist for the new Libyan government galore,the death of a man who ruled his country for 40 years was met with celebration. "The Shadow of tyranny had been lifted," as President Obama said.

While it was a day for Libyans, it also marked another quiet triumph for Predsident Obama's foreign policy, except in Washington you would never know it. President Obama had gambled on the Libyan mission much more than people recognized and he summoned a broad international coalition in support of the mission in breakneck speed and gained approval from the United Nations Security Council. He based the intervention in Libya on the humanitarian grounds of the Right to Protect. This triggered severe criticism from Republicans in the House and they were even discussions of impeachment. As American allies were given command of the operation, Republicans blasted President Obama for leading from behind. And there were grumbles that the United States wasn't putting ground troops on the ground. Mitt Romney even accused Obama of appeasing Colo. Gaddafi, ignoring the relationship the last administration had worked out with the dictator, even forgiving him for the Lockerbie bombing. The most severe critics were Senator John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham, who doubted the strategy of leading from behind would work.

Today should have been a time when President Obama's strategy was vindicated. The cost of the Libyan intervention was $1 billion and there were no American casualties and Libyans have ownership now in their own revolution unlike the Iraqis.

But of course, this was not to be. Senator Marco Rubio praised the French and the Italians and the Libyans but complained that President Obama had acted too late. Senator Grassley complained that President Obama acted six weeks too late. Senator McCain grudgingly complimented the Obama Administration but saved his praise for our allies and the Libyans. Mitt Romney said it was about time that Gaddafi had been killed, implying President Obama was somehow at fault on this score.

Eli Lake, a conservative columnist for Newsweek, tweeted,"The Birth Certificate President accomplished what Reagan and Bush did not: He killed Qaddafi and Bin Laden." Andrew Sullivan, a wayward conservative who is supportive of President Obama, tweeted," Killing bin Laden,Al-Awalki and Gaddafi in six months,if he were a Republican, Obama would now be on Mount Rushmore."

In an earlier briefing in the day to NBC news, Obama national security advisers on background commented that since May 1, the administration had eliminated more terrorists linked to Al Qaeda and like-minded groups than during all the days of the so-called war on terror.

President Obama spoke from the White House earlier in the day when he declared to the Libyan people, "You have won your revolution." He also outlined the next steps in creating a democratic system stressing a true democracy would be the best revenge on Gaddafi . He also urged the Libyan government to respect human rights, even for those they have detained. He also expressed condolences to American families who had lost relatives in Gaddafi terrorism in the past.

Whether Americans like it or not and there is a great deal of concern expressed by Republicans about the Arab Spring, citizens of northern Africa and the Middle East feel a type of ownership of the process of change. Direct American intervention has not produced the same in Iraq or Afghanistan. President Obama is owed alot of credit for understanding this basic fact and supporting change without a heavy hand. Ironically, this is the divide with Republicans on national security. Lingering in the GOP is still the idea that the United States can unilaterally dictate the terms of change to the world. It was true then and it is not true now.

But also there is a notion that change wasn't necessary because many of these dictators were already friends with the United States even if they brutally treated their citizens.

Ironically,as President Obama is cleaning up the Middle East neighborhood of terrorist threats and dictators, the GOP's number 1 hero Bibi Netanyahu has successfully negotiated with Hamas and prisoner release exchange of 1,000 Palestinians for 1 Israeli. This deal got all the Presidential candidates in a knot at the Las Vegas debate. Would you negotiate with terrorists? After all that's what their number 1 strategic ally did and at great disadvantage to Israel.

There will be countless op-eds on Obama's strategy and endless Monday morning quarterbacking. Today, let's just appreciate that it worked, it didn't cost anything and no Americans were killed.

Now if the President has been so successful in foreign policy, could you imagine what he could do in domestic policy if his hands were tied by the GOP and their filibusters?

And no folks, the President's policy is not a continuation of Bush's or the fantasies of the neo-conservatives. Only yesterday Bill Kristol and his new neoconservative front published a scree that Obama was appeasing Tehran over the latest terrorist plot and had done nothing against Terhran's nuclear threat or support democratic change in that country. In fact, both things are untrue and President Obama has racheted up sanctions and pressure on the nuclear issue by demanding the release of data from the IEA about Iran's plans to weaponize enriched uranium. Of course, he might think about his options unlike his critics

They might persuade a gullible public about President Obama's weakness in national security but he has already surpassed both of his immediate predecessors in this department. He could do even more if the House doesn't cut foreign assistance and continue to erode our influence in the world.

I expect the next change will come in Yemen and that Syria will be more diffcult because Russia and China are opposed to any moves by the UN Security Council.

A surprise change may come in Venezuela with the death of Hugo Chavez.

But for tonight, we have to say there are no flies on President Obama. No Drama Obama can tgake the 3 O'clock phone call, his Republican competitors can not. And that's the truth.