Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The 'optics' of Odyssey Dawn

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"Odyssey Dawn, at least for now, is the first United States Africom war. The Pentagon, via Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, dispelled any doubts as he stressed that the "leading edge" is American. Homer is played by General Carter Ham, out of his headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany (no African country bothered to host Africom). And Ulysses - in what looks and sounds more like an Iliad than an Odyssey - is commander of Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn Admiral Sam Locklear, on board USS Mount Whitney somewhere in the Mediterranean.....

Any decent military analyst worth his single malt on the rocks knows nobody wins a war from the air. The humanitarian yearning is a smokescreen (why Libya and not Yemen, Bahrain, Gaza?) This is more like a new, very dangerous war theater in the Orientalist-named MENA (Middle East, Northern Africa), a warped Odyssey with no endgame and no end in sight. Now you see it, now you don't."

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