Spencer Ackerman in New York, Chris Stephen in Tunis and Ewen MacAskill in London report:
US warplanes have attacked Islamic State forces in Libya, the Pentagon has announced, at the start of what US officials say will be a sustained offensive against the militant group outside Iraq and Syria.
Isis positions in the strategic port city of Sirte were hit by manned aircraft and drones on Monday, after a request from the UN-backed unity government, the Pentagon said.
Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said “additional US strikes” against the group in Sirte were to come. Their goal, Cook said, will be to enable local US allies make a “decisive, strategic advance” on Sirte, which for the past eight weeks has been the site of fierce urban fighting between forces loyal to the unity government and entrenched Isis fighters.
Nadia Prupis at Common Dreams writes:
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said Monday that she was "deeply concerned about the expansion of U.S. airstrikes in Libya. The U.S. military continues to become more engaged in the Middle East, despite the lack of a Congressional debate or specific authorization."
"The American people and our brave men and women in uniform deserve a public debate on this war, including the costs and consequences to our national security and domestic priorities. They deserve a Congress with the courage to debate the war that we are asking them to fight," Lee said.
"Our military experts are clear: there is no military solution to this crisis," she continued. "Only a comprehensive, regionally-led strategy that addresses the underlying political, economic, humanitarian and diplomatic challenges will be effective in ultimately degrading and dismantling [ISIS]."
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Meet the new victims:
Have you heard the good news? Now that Barack Obama has been elected president, racism in America has ended. And we must turn our attention to the new racism—against whites. At least, that’s what Republicans would have us believe.
This isn’t exactly a new argument. In 1990, Jesse Helms, the senator from North Carolina, won his re-election with the infamous "Hands" commercial:
You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority, because of a racial quota. Is that really fair?
That was the argument 20 years ago—that undeserving minorities were benefiting from an unjust system that discriminated against whites.
And things really haven’t changed much. In fact, they’ve gotten worse.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin returns with the first of the post-convention polling updates, plus a roundup of the latest “white working class resentment” theories. Republicans have no impulse control: Trump smears the Khans, and; NC just couldn’t wait to target black voters.
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