Brain Dead US House of Representatives

Long War: The US House of Representatives voted 225-201 to cut off funding for any US effort to train and equip Libyan rebels. This measure is unlikely to pass the Senate and even then it would be vetoed by the President. Nevertheless, it is troubling because the vote takes direct aim at the CIA, a towering example of Congressional stupidity and hubris. And previous House attempts to muzzle the CIA were defeated. This is the first one to pass. I don't like the momentum it is seemingly creating.

Consider the backdrop behind this ill-conceived vote. The youthful "Arab Spring" Libyan rebels in the east are unable to make any progress against Gaddafi's army. But the Berber tribes in the western mountains are capturing village after village and severing supply lines to Tripoli, a python strangling a goat. The Berbers are winning the war and as explained in yesterday's blog, there is reason to believe heavy CIA involvement is propelling these gains.

There was good news on jobs today but the price of oil rocked up. Any bit of good economic news is self-defeating because it spikes oil in the current geopolitical environment. The global expansion will only continue if oil comes down and this will only happen if Gaddafi is defeated, which will not only reopen production in the massive Libyan oil fields it will also tamp down Islamic violence in oil rich Nigeria and Sudan.

The House doesn't have the foggiest notion what a victory for Gaddafi would entail. The sanctions on Libyan oil would then become permanent. The current Libyan war has knocked oil prices up by about $20 a barrel, but this increase is predicated on the Libyan oil shut down being temporary. If it were permanent, oil would really rock up.

Gaddafi at one time was the largest sponsor of state terrorism on the planet. If he were victorious he would surely unleash a hurricane of terror across the globe. And for the first time in history NATO would have been defeated in combat. This would probably spell the end to NATO as an effective fighting alliance. The war in Afghanistan is a NATO effort. If NATO were to effectively collapse, Afghanistan would be handed over to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

America is tired of war but war is not tired of America. Just yesterday Homeland Security admitted that it is monitoring a plot by AQAP to put suicide bombers with surgically implanted bombs in airliners. The mainstream media is treating this like a joke. But there have been reports for years of Pakistani surgeons training with Al-Qaeda to use breast implants as bombs. These would be undetectable by current electronic screening devices. Only trained dogs could detect these devices and there is no effort to use dogs in this fashion.

Finally, clipping the CIA's wings right now as it is taking over from the Pentagon as the main instrument for fighting the Long War would be toxic beyond belief.

The reason for the vote against the CIA is the ongoing talks to curb the US deficit. These talks need to be finalized and the wild thrashing around on the part of Congress needs to halt.