LT Calvin White Question #2 Midterm TSDM

Does the decision to act in Libya align with our interests and objectives? In my opinion yes and

for a few very good reasons I will explain to you why it is true.

The National Security Strategy in our resource decreasing time has had to adapt as much as we

have had to on the battlefield. We have to use other means to get to the same end, and at the

moment we have to use all of our resources in a better way, and the way Hillary Clinton put it

our diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural or smart powers is the way we

must move in the future. A single or combination of these powers will allow us implement

strategy under any circumstance. In Libya, we heavily pushed the international community and

NATO to make a decision on the direction to proceed, and we gracefully brought up the rearin

some eyes that was the wrong move but it kept our resource pull to a minimum and allowed

other countries to support the innocents, instead of the US always coming to the rescue. Another

objective in the National Security Strategy is to Deter Aggression, in essence to prevent wars.

The Presidents decision in Libya, as difficult as it were did stop the genocide that was occurring

and to protect the innocent from the state actors committing the atrocities. Now I do believe that

the time line that spanned from the initial even to action was a bit long, but in the end the

President did follow, as did the COCOMs, on the Security Strategyalbeit the framework is

very general in the strategy but the section about Regional Security in Africa to protect the

innocent civilians is what we accomplished. Once that was accomplished it allowed the failed

state (Qadhafi) to regroup and expunge all the corruption and genocide that had been happening.

I might be over stretching it a bit, but in the end the U.S. was protecting itself by involving

militarily in Libya with the International Community.

Globalization has led to the ability of all actors to be involved on the international stage, and the

big wigs in the White House all are aware of this as it is stated in the QDR. Even the most
LT Calvin White Question #2 Midterm TSDM

powerful of corrupt governments have a very difficult time in corralling their people and making

them follow their rules and policies. We want to have a peaceful world where people have the

ability to voice their opinions, and ask for change without the threat of military action or

violence. The only way for us to help the world in this matter is to garner respect and trust from

all of our allies to aide in every global event or catastrophe that happens. When all parties are

involved everyone will prosper. This is exactly what happened in the Arab Spring and for good

reason the United States played a part in each one, even if it wasnt in a direct roll, and with

limited allocation of resources. This has allowed us to recover from our previous engagements

and still have the ability to reach out and help those in need.

Our National Security Strategy, QDR, DSG, and every single other strategic document all

initially boil down to a wordsequestration. Our most blatant and high level National Security

event is our indebtedness, and President Obama knows this very well. Between the last decade at

war and impulsive overspending we have dug ourselves a very deep hole to try and dig out of

even as the rest of the world is flourishing and matching our wealth. President Obamas decision

in Libya was not an easy one because we could have ended up in another war at the heels of the

last recession. The growth economically we were experiencing would have crashed and possibly

crippled the country for many years. His decision to ask for help as it may be was the wisest

decision that anyone has made in recent years in the White House. Using International

Communities and NATO to take the brunt of the leadership role in Libya was twofold. One the

USA would not be looked at as the sole bearer of our already limited financial resources, and two

the way the world views us would have the possibility of changing from empire to facilitator

and that in itself would be significant step in our National and Theater Strategies.