Libya: many countries involved

According to THIS ARTICLE, the countries involved will include (whether with forces or bases): France, UK, USA, Spain, Malta, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, and even Italy (which had been leaning more towards the German position before, according to reports), and possibly Norway. [ADDENDUM: Not Malta. My brain overlooked the word “not” on the first reading.]

That’s a very large group that appeared suddenly, and the motives are discernibly different in each of the cases, ranging from petroleum concerns to refugee concerns to genuine horror at Qaddafi’s barbarity. And perhaps a mix of all three in all the cases.

Obama says that if Qaddafi is not stopped, “the democratic values that we stand for would be overrun,” and the “words of the international community would be rendered hollow.”

The words are appropriate in Libya’s case, but do ring a bit hollow as soon as we turn our heads towards Bahrain. That situation, I fear, is already a lost cause. And no one seems to be rallying to the Bahraini opposition right now, except for the Egyptian protesters in front of Bahrain’s embassy here.