The longer the uprising in Libya continues, the more pressure there will be to “do something”:
The United States should immediately ask the Security Council to authorize a no-flight zone and make clear to Russia and China that if they block the resolution, the blood of the Libyan opposition will be on their hands. We should push them at least to abstain, and bring the issue to a vote as soon as possible. If we get a resolution, we should work with the Arab League to assemble an international coalition to impose the no-flight zone. If the Security Council fails to act, then we should recognize the opposition Libyan National Council as the legitimate government, as France has done, and work with the Arab League to give the council any assistance it requests.
Any use of force must be carefully and fully debated, but that debate has now been had. It’s been raging for a week, during which almost every Arab country has come on board calling for a no-flight zone and Colonel Qaddafi continues to gain ground. It is time to act.
I’m not sure what this would accomplish, to be honest. The bloodshed won’t stop with a no-fly zone, and then the conventional wisdom will slowly shift to “Well, we did the no-fly zone and that didn’t work, so now we need to XXX.” And then, before you know it, we’ll have Marines on the shores of Tripoli, we’ll be spending another 50 billion a year indefinitely while our troops eat roadside explosives as we wait for our freedom bombs to nurture democracy while Ken Pollack collects another check for going on my tv to tell me we just need another freedom unit and then you doubters will see.
Don’t get me wrong, it is horrible what is going on. I just don’t understand how we make it better.