It sounds counter intuitive, but intervening in Libya with US forces for humanitarian purposes would harm the very people such intervention is designed to help.
We've been down this road before. Think of Somalia and Iraq in the 1990s. Humanitarian intervention via the force of US military leads to nothing good for the people we intend to aid, strengthens the authoritarian rule of the thugs we intend to weaken, and reinforces resentment of the US in the Muslim world.
Now Senator Graham wants to try it all over again by enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya.
At 5:05 Graham pontificates on how US military intervention, via a no-fly zone, would weaken Qaddafi's air capability and save lives.
Militarily, such an immediate goal is probably attainable and would put a momentary stop to the killing of Libyans by air strike. Politically, however, intervening would give Gadhafi rhetorical leverage to solidify loyalty and increase violent suppression of protesters. We're quick to dismiss Gadhafi's rants as delusional but he has been saying the Libyan uprisings have been incited by the US.
Seeing American fighter jets blanket Libyan airspace would only give credence to Gadhafi and embolden his loyalists. Protesters could be viewed not only as disloyal to Gadhafi but also collaborators with the US government.
This move would increase the ranks of pro-Gadhafi forces and give him some credibility among the Libyan people just as such credibility is vanishing. This halt, or perhaps shift, in momentum can only lead to further violence against protesters, not less, and only prolong all the violence and suffering that attends such civil wars.
Any of these situations would be detrimental to the anti government protesters and would only prolong the fighting and their suffering.
As Bruce Fein notes in his poignant book, American Empire: Before The Fall, there are two reasons to desist from humanitarian intervention via military force: they fail at their stated goals and compound the misery of the population, and they are a pretext for any country for military occupation of any other country. It is lose-lose.
Opposition to Gadhafi is growing. We should let it continue to grow by staying out of the mess.
, there are two reasons to desist from humanitarian intervention via military force: they fail at their stated goals and compound the misery of the population, and they are a pretext for any country for military occupation of any other country. It is lose-lose.