And many of those calling for a humanitarian intervention--if not most based on past performance--will eventually call our forces baby killers deserving of ICC trials under Belgian judges. When the going gets tough, the compassionate are gone.
We're busy after all, actually fighting a war across the Middle East region against jihadis while most Europeans watch us fight. Let the Europeans step up closer to home.
First of all, Italy has a major interest in ending the fighting so that refugees don't spill across the Mediterranean to land on Italy's shores. Italy has decent forces--certainly capable of landing in Libya and securing coast areas. We could help logistically.
There is the NATO Response Force, which we could support logistically. I personally don't think much of the no-fly zone concept. One, it would have to be done from Italian air bases or ashore in Libya since we'd have to move in a carrier task force which isn't there. Defections of pilots have effectively grounded the Libyan air force, it seems. I don't recall any reports of bombing in quite a while now. And would we really shoot down transport planes, which could be carrying a mix of ammunition, mercenaries, nuns, and puppies? Quietly send in technicians to the rebel-held areas to put captured anti-aircraft weapons into operation if we really want to help hold off Libyan aircraft.
Or let the European Union go in. They're all proud of the Eurocorps as a symbol of Europe's power separate from us. I'll cheer them on and wish them well.
At most, if we are talking ground troops, we could help a European-dominated intervention (whether Italian-, NATO-, or EU-led) by adding in a Marine Expeditionary Unit or a battalion task force of paratroopers. Just to show them that this is what allies do.
But should America lead an intervention? No. Khaddafi is a piker compared to Saddam in the realm of depravity, and we already know that Compassionate Americans will grow to admire the "stability" and "peace" that the heavy hand of Khaddafi could have provided if we'd just kept our imperialist noses out of the place.
UPDATE: Another reason a no-fly zone would probably be an empty gesture:
Most seriously for Col. Gadhafi, personnel at Tripoli’s Mitiga air force base – a former U.S. installation seized by Col. Gadhafi in his 1969 coup and considered a key military asset – have defected and joined the opposition, according to statements from officers and credible reports.
What does Khaddafi have left to fly?
