The No-Fly Zone Doesn’t Fly

Beware foreign entanglements.

As you know, the UN (supported by the US) has voted to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. Isn’t getting militarily involved in a civil war the very definition of foreign entanglements?

Let’s be clear here, this has nothing to do with protecting innocent protesters in the squares of Tripoli. They are long gone. This is a civil war, a civil war in which there are no clear good guys, only a very clear bad guy.

If the no-fly zone is successful in turning the tide in this civil war against Qaddafi’s forces, a dubious prospect at best, then what? What do we get out of it? A pro-American government, I doubt it.

So why? Why get involved in another war in the middle east? Why give the middle eastern despots another excuse to decry American imperialism as an excuse to suppress and oppress their own people when there is absolutely no prospect of gain?

This is a mistake. The Obama administration was simply too slow off the mark to make a difference here. The no-fly zone does nothing to avert a humanitarian crisis, the time for that was three weeks ago. You snooze, you lose.

The no-fly zone will do nothing to avert a humanitarian crisis, but it has the potential to cause one. It is for these reasons that I suggest that the no-fly zone doesn’t fly.