on Libya

It’s starting to sound like sturdy German and Italian opposition may make both EU and NATO action on Libya impossible.

So, it may be a British/French/U.S. “Imperialist Trio” that does something.

As long as the fighting was either stalemated or an ebb-and-flow sort of thing, I could understand the “do nothing” approach, and occasionally even shared that view myself. But with Benghazi itself under threat, I think the game has changed. It would simply be intolerable to watch Qaddafi mop up that city, make severe reprisals, and then continue on as head of an outlaw state. This is the limit, I think, of the sort of politics that is satisfied merely with denouncing the evils of the West. Obviously, the West isn’t entirely evil (this is why I can respect Chomsky without being a true fan), and often it alone is technologically equipped to do certain things that involve force. I understand the dangers of the slippery slope, and with luck Iraq has taught a durable lesson. But I don’t think slippery-slope fears should lead us to sit back and watch the whole of Benghazi get massacred. It would be a bitter memory for all of us for decades to come.

Here’s ONE ARTICLE on the topic.