The New Obama Doctrine: Arming Our Enemies?

The Obama administration is reportedly actively considering arming the Libyan rebels without even knowing for certain who they really are. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who met on Tuesday in London with a senior rebel leader and made clear that Col. Qaddafi must go, admitted that:

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We don’t know as much as we would like to know.

However, what we do know at this point is alarming enough to stop any Commander-in-Chief with America’s best interests in mind from even considering providing arms to these rebels. But not necessarily our current Commander-In-Chief, heralding his new Obama Doctrine of deferring to international consensus on how far we go in fulfilling internationally defined ‘humanitarian’ military missions. A senior administration official is quoted in the New York Times today as saying:

Al Qaeda in that part of the country is obviously an issue.

The military commander of NATO, Adm. James G. Stavridis, told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that there were “flickers” in intelligence reports about the presence of al Qaeda and Hezbollah members among the rebels. Flicker is defined as an “inconstant or wavering light.” We know from a West Point report and the admission of a leader of the rebels himself that some of the rebels have al Qaeda sympathies and were sent to Iraq for the purpose of killing our soldiers fighting the insurgency there. We’re obviously dealing with more than just a “flicker. ” But, in any case, shouldn’t even a flickering light bulb go off in President Obama’s head that it is reckless to provide any arms to people who could very well be Islamic terrorists, and who will most likely turn around and use them against Americans? More...