Monday 14 March 2011

it's probably too late

First Post is a really annoying publication most of the time, but here it is spot on.  A no-fly zone would not work in terms of protecting the people of Libya, as it would not stop fighting on the ground and would probably not stop Gaddafy's attack helicopters either.  So Cameron and Sarkozy's enthusiasm for it is probably misplaced.  So what then?  The Arab League, while it wants to see Gaddafy's regime trashed, probably wants "the West" to do it for it.  And Barry O is too much of a pussy to decide.  Leave them to it.  Gaddafy's troops slaughter the rebels and the general population until the money runs out, there currently not being any oil revenue, leaving the country an ungovernable wasteland.  From rogue state to failed state.  Jolly good, hein?  Or go in.  More people are killed.  Then what, post-Gaddafy?  It's the sharpest challenge to a statesman, to take a position in a situation like this, and then to act on it if necessary.  Infuratingly, the article in First Post refers to what it calls Tony Blair's liberal interventionism as "woolly".  Whatever else it was it was not that.  The Chicago Doctrine he outlined in 1999 was clear and unequivocal.  A lot of people, once they noticed it, did not like it at all.  

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