Monday, March 14, 2011

Intervention in Libya?

Following-up on my earlier piece, "Regime Change Libya?"

I'm actually not all that gung-ho on U.S. military intervention, although the case is not just a matter of democracy promotion at this point. Gaddafi's now waging an all-out war on his own people. William Kristol echoes Niall Ferguson's point on Egypt a few weeks back, noting the utter bankruptcy of the Obama administration's foreign policy.

Progressives are up in arms about the possible use of force, which is
a classic left-wing knee-jerk reaction to deployment of military power, no matter how limited. It's pretty shameful, especially as these tools claim Barack Hussein's doing a fabulous job with his comments on the crisis so far. Problem is, that's not going to be nearly enough, as William Kristol points out:

Perhaps progressives might wrap their tiny minds around the call from Princeton's Anne-Marie Slaughter:

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.
Slaughter's a genuine "liberal interventionist," while Kristol is perhaps today's most prominent neoconservative hawk on regime change in the Middle East. That their arguments are dovetailing like this, in such a compelling way, makes for an interesting smackdown against the lame antiwar peanut-brains.

RELATED: At Los Angeles Times, "
Libyan rebels flee Port Brega as Kadafi's forces advance" (via Memeorandum).

6 comments:

Norm said...

Into the vacuum of leadership charges chaos. Everyone better buckle up because chaos is coming our way. Anyone with an oil burner should take a delivery of coal right about now...while it is easily available. You will need something to burn next winter.

ck said...

Two points A.noone but the muslim brotherhood/Iran is in a position to fill the power vacuum with K-daffy gone. B. He's only killing other muslims(which is the normal state of affairs, when no infidels are handy for murdering)

Old Rebel said...

When someone's been as consistently wrong as Bill Kristol, shouldn't we at some point stop paying any attention to him?

If Bill Kristol urged an attack on Switzerland, would you support that too? Just wondering.

Then there's the inescapable fact that WE ARE BROKE, and cannot afford any more wars, whether supported by Neocons or anyone else.

AmPowerBlog said...

Tuggle: Which part of "I'm actually not all that gung-ho on U.S. military intervention" don't you understand?

Old Rebel said...

So your quote of Slaughter (perfect name!) urging intervention isn't for real?

Dave said...

If Bill Kristol urged an attack on Switzerland, would you support that too?

Given the pussified spinelessness of President AWOL Golfer, I wouldn't support an invasion of Toronto at this point.

-Dave