Obama to Tout U.N. 'R2P' Policy in Libya Speech

COMMENTARY | On Monday night, President Obama is set to give the Libya speech that he failed to give before ordering the Tomahawk Cruise Missile bombing of Libya March 19 . The President seemed to have changed so abruptly his mind about the Libya bombing that telling America about it became a pesky afterthought.

The reason for the bombing was clear only to Progressives who followed the career path of Samantha Power , a Harvard School of Government Professor who left her job to work for then Senator Barack Obama. The reason, compressed into a single acronym, is " R2P "—shorthand for renting the military to the United Nations.

You know "R2P," don't you? Hillary Clinton does—she's among those who urged the bombing of Libya to avert a "humanitarian crisis." R2P has its own Twitter hash tag and a host of dedicated followers, hedge fund billionaire George Soros among them.

Samantha Power is one of President Obama's foreign policy advisors. One of her books attracted then Senator Obama—who recruited her for his 2008 campaign. Power's widely praised 2007 book "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" urges U.S. intervention in foreign countries to prevent genocide.

President Obama's "Responsibility to Protect" policy was a crusade in search of a location. Libya provided it.

But massacres are everywhere. Some count; others don't. A U.N bureaucrat with pluck and connections to the Obama White House could conceivable order a no-fly zone over Northern Mexico.

In the past five years, more than 28,000 people have been killed by violence along the Mexican border. Obviously, body counts are immaterial to the White House concept of "massacre."

The White House has also disavowed "responsibility to protect" in Syria, where an estimated 126 protestors have been killed by Bashar al-Assad's troops. Ironic that the White House suddenly applied the term to Libya, praised by the United Nations Human Rights Council earlier this year.

But how many people did Gadhafi's troops kill between the time the Libyan uprising began and when the bombing began? Did the bombing cause more Libyan deaths? Could more lives have been saved by non-intervention? No one really knows.

White House officials have taken to tossing out Gadhafi's " no mercy " battle cry wherever media cameras are rolling. We are told that the massive bombing campaign was not to "get Gadhafi" but to protect civilian populations.

Many are skeptical of the claim that the massive Libyan air attacks by a hundred fifty Tomahawk Cruise missiles were to "defend the Libyan civilian population." Though it's true you can cure a painful toothache by decapitating the person who has it, that's not always advisable.

Nation building by bombardment has never been done without follow up steps. What if Gadhafi doesn't accept Obama's invitation to "step down?" What if ostensibly defeated Libyan government troops discard their uniforms and continue fighting a guerrilla war for control of Libya?

For the moment, the President has sub-contracted America's distinguished military to the United Nations, European oil interests, and the agenda of a narrow, privileged, academic Progressive elite. President Obama will try to convince America tonight that this new progressive vision of foreign policy-- R2P--is right for America.

Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for several weekly and daily newspapers, for Demand Studios, and for AOL Online. He is a former news director for radio station KPEN in Los Altos, Calif. He enjoys news and business writing.