How easily the U.S. steps into the unknown. Not burdened with strategic concerns about what to do, how to do it or how to get out. Everyone but the most dishonest Neocon admits a no-fly zone will have no impact on Khaddafi’s ability to crush the opposition on the ground. So the UN resolution is implicitly an invitation to kinetic war. A war declared on Libya on behalf of people and tribes we don’t know. Once again, high dudgeon and emotional satisfaction heralds ‘regime change.’
It’s true the French have led the way. But we’ve seen that movie, too. Recall that the French also stridently demanded the Iraq no-fly zone only quickly to bug out. Americans held the bag while the French enriched themselves with Saddam’s contracts. Should Americans in fact strike Libya, they again will have stumbled into General Jello’s ‘Pottery Barn Rule’. So much for jobs, domestic reconstruction, deficits and recalibrating strategic ends and means.
Can’t blame Bush. Can’t even blame Cheney, Rummy and the Neocons. Should we slide into de facto war, this time America can only look down at the shiny Taco Bell counter and take in the reflection.