If they really stick to providing the kind of assistance it was asked of them by the local population (ie, a no fly zone without any foreign troops on the ground) without making a mess of "collateral damage" (let's be honest and call it for what it is, dead civilians), then i guess it would be ok. But that's a big if.
In any case, the hypocrisy in the situation is very obvious: all the EU countries waited until the last batch of Lybian oil they had bought was shipped to them before they kicked off their operation. Our own prime minister comes from a party that had close ties to many Arab regimes (dating from a time that it wasn't really "agreeable" for many western countries to do so) and he still went ahead and granted access to the EU aircraft operating there, just like Sarkozy and Berlusconi were shaking Gaddafi's hand a few months ago but now want him gone...it's madness
Plus, i don't see anyone instituting any kind of international control zones in pro-western dictatorships like Bahrain, where mercenary police kills between 10 and 50 people every other day or so.
I'm very ambivalent about this. On one hand it's still a question of "what serves me right" that's presented as a freedom promoting operation through warfare. On the other one, at least this coalition had an invitation to operate there, a UN resolution to that effect and the reserved but still telling backing of the Arab league, which is much more than can be said for operations like Iraq. I just hope the locals can seize the situation and take matters into their own hands without the need for another prolonged war, which would be detrimental to everyone at this point in time.
03-21-2011, 12:56 AM
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