NATO Takes Over

Charts: The Nasdaq broke above 2700 and the S&P 500 broke above 1300 and then 1305, these are all key technical levels. This is good action, but volume sucks. The market is advancing if the Libyan rebels advance. The market is entirely driven, for now, by the Long War. So it is not technically driven.

Long War: Allied war planes have established a No-Fly Zone over Libya. Gaddafi's air force tried to challenge the NFZ with one plane and it was destroyed. With total air superiority achieved the allies have gone on to destroy Libyan tanks, artillery, rocket launchers, and ground troops. Libyan ground forces are easily destroyed so long as they have not yet entered rebel held cities. When Gaddafi's forces do enter a rebel city the alliance is unwilling to attack the bad guys; therefore, it is up to the rebels to deal with bad guys at close quarters. Obviously we would want to see the rebels being armed and trained by the good guys so that they could fight effectively at close quarters. It is unclear to what extent this is happening because there are probably two movements within the rebel offense: 1) There are undisciplined ragtag rebel fighters engaging Gaddafi without any central command. 2) The rebels are probably training and equipping a real army that will join the war at a later date. It is this "real" rebel army that the good guys would be helping and we don't know if such help is being delivered.

Bowing to the will of Turkey, it looks as though NATO will take over all aspects of Operation Odyssey Dawn (OOD), on land, air, and sea. This is a positive development so long as NATO operates in the manner that it has always done in the past, i.e. with America calling the shots. Except Obama is obsessed with America not calling the shots in OOD (and maybe everywhere). The President is crazed to disavow all aspects of OOD. Obama is essentially curled into the fetal position and bleating, "Please make it all go away." If the United States were a fist, then NATO would be a glove. It is impossible for NATO to actually run a military operation without the US acting as the alliance's leader. The Supreme Allied Commander of NATO is always an American.

The only way any of this makes sense is if the US is putting out propaganda for the Arab street. In other words, a bit of wink, wink, nod, nod, America isn't in charge, don't worry Arab street, no imperialist superpower throwing its weight around in Libya. Even if we are seeing the old wink, wink, it still doesn't make sense. The Arab street isn't stupid. It knows that either America is in charge or nobody is in charge. It's okay for Obama not to be in charge. It is not okay for America not to be in charge. So far Hillary has been calling the shots. We need this to continue.