Word: fleetly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...think twice about it," said Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser under Gerald Ford. But Gaddafi was hardly clobbered this time around. He has vowed, and there is no reason to disbelieve him, that he will continue his war against the U.S. in an arena in which the Sixth Fleet cannot sail --that of international terror. Indeed, according to intelligence $ officials, his involvement with terrorism is at an all-time high...
...satisfy the onerous requirements of public relations both at home and abroad, Reagan had to find a pretext for sailing the Sixth Fleet into harm's way. But assuring free passage in international waters had only a little more to do with the actual reasons for sending ships across Gaddafi's line of death than rescuing American medical students did with invading Grenada in 1983; as pretexts go, it was about on a par with citing arms shipments to rebels in El Salvador in order to aid the contras in Nicaragua. Scoffed Senator Gary Hart of Colorado: "There is always...
...difficult to tell how seriously the targets of Reagan's bellicosity took it. On the night the Sixth Fleet sailed from the Gulf of Sidra, a fireworks display in Tripoli commemorating the 16th anniversary of the departure of the British military from Libya turned into a celebration of Gaddafi's latest skirmish with the U.S. In Nicaragua citizens enjoyed Holy Week by going to the beach, apparently unconcerned about the battle raging along the Honduran border. Nor did the President of Honduras, Jose Azcona Hoyo, seem overly concerned that his country was being invaded. He too went to the seashore...
Gaddafi's navy was no match for the Sixth Fleet. But aside from having the U.S. seem to stand tall again, it was difficult to discern any long-term strategic policy behind Reagan's show of force. In fact, long-range policies are in short supply in this Administration. Reagan swats a fly here or a gnat there while ignoring the insects' breeding areas. Says the President's former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane of last week's action: "I don't see the kind of strategic framework that would make it a new phase. It is more a case...
Tweaking Gaddafi without defanging him may be like "wounding a dangerous animal," says Edward Luttwak, an analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies. Even a former foreign policy adviser to President Reagan last week questioned the wisdom of sending in the Sixth Fleet. "It's all right to give Gaddafi a bloody nose," he said. "But if you do it without a game plan, what does it get you? If there is now more terrorism aimed at Europeans and Americans, what have...