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Briefly, Libya (Cyrus)

There is much to be said about the Western and Arab intervention in Libya, but it’s 3:00 in the morning and sleep is closing in fast. Instead, three quick comments:

  1. This is a war of choice. As such, it would be nice if there was a clear exit strategy, yet I’ve heard little of when the intervention will be halted. What are the stopping conditions? Philip Gourevitch lays this question out nicely in the New Yorker.

  2. Why this war? Both Yemen and Bahrain (with the help of Saudi Arabia) are violently suppressing movements with democratic aspirations, yet the U.S. barely makes a noise beyond calling for “all parties” to refrain from using force. Do citizens in these countries need to pick up weapons before they will be taken seriously?

    I’m not implying that the U.S. should intervene in Yemen in Bahrain as well. I would be happy if we just canceled our 60 billion dollar weapon deal with Saudi Arabia and stopped training their fighter jet pilots. We also sold Bahrain about $350 million dollars of weapons the last two years. No doubt, those weapons are now helping to promote democracy.

  3. Obama does not seem to see it as necessary to ask congress for authorization to commit America to yet another engagement. While American planes have yet to directly participate in the bombardment, over 100 U.S. cruise missiles have been fired at targets. This is not a “limited” application of force, no matter how the Pentagon may want to frame it. I think I already know the answer, but I’ll ask anyway: do the Constitutional restrictions on the President’s war-making powers still mean anything? As you might expect, Glenn Greenwald is on this question like a hawk on a mouse.

Sometimes countries end up doing good things for questionable reasons. I hope Libya is one of those times.

The romantic side of me empathizes with the imagined aspirations of the revolutionaries, and is happy to see action taken to stop their slaughter. But another part of me, the part that has watched and read about Western intervention for the last decade, is suspicious that I will end up regretting my current feelings of support.

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6 responses to “Briefly, Libya (Cyrus)”

  1. Ruchira

    Sometimes countries end up doing good things for questionable reasons. I hope Libya is one of those times.
    Yes, let’s hope that the moral decision in Libya is like the one we could but did not make in Rwanda in 1994. Or the one that Indira Gandhi did make in East Pakistan (later, Bangladesh) in 1971. Indeed, horrible as warfare is, there are some just causes. I hope the Arab world will agree that Libya is one such case.
    Regarding Saudi Arabia’s armed intervention in Bahrain, I am just appalled by the sheer gall and our deafening silence. That is one country I wish to see get scared. And those Saudi fighter pilots we have trained, they should be lending a hand (or a wing) in Libya – against Gaddafi and for the Libyan people. Perhaps we don’t like dictators but love monarchies. I don’t know. It’s totally baffling.
    I am just as ambivalent about the western incursion in Libya. I hope this time we and our allies know exactly how much “help” we need to extend to the Libyan rebels and for how long.
    As for the president’s power to wage war without congressional approval, Bush-Cheney cleared the brush for Obama thoroughly.

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  2. Sujatha

    I think it is more likely that the monarchies of SA and Bahrain own significant chunks of multinational corps that ‘indirectly own’ the US, as opposed to Gadhafi, who probably has large amounts stashed away in Swiss banks from his petro-money, but is going to run out eventually if he keeps draining his accounts to fight his war.
    That might explain why US policy favors the Arab league countries, helping maintain their status quo, while Gadhafi is considered expendable to the altar of nascent people’s power uprisings. Help to the Libyan rebels is likely to be monetary or back-door, while the UN statement provides cover for protecting at least the innocent civilians, should things in Libya get out of hand. I don’t see the UN statement being clear on providing assistance to armed rebels with ground troop support and such.

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  3. Cyrus Hall

    Ruchira, I’d be willing to bet that we’ll be engaging with the jets and tanks we are selling Saudi Arabia at some point in my lifetime. The U.S. seems to have a knack at arming its future military targets.
    Sujatha, Gaddafi, along with the rest of the world’s dictators, paid for my PhD (just like the U.S. military paid for my M.S.). I suppose I should be grateful that they have robbed their populaces and sent the money to Switzerland.

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  4. Ruchira

    Looks like Gaddafi is definitely a target.

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  5. Norman Costa

    “The romantic side of me empathizes with the imagined aspirations of the revolutionaries, and is happy to see action taken to stop their slaughter. But another part of me, the part that has watched and read about Western intervention for the last decade, is suspicious that I will end up regretting my current feelings of support.”
    I know the feeling. Here’s hoping.

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  6. Sujatha

    Looks like they were able to choke off a large chunk of Gadhafi’s funds:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/sanctions-in-72-hours-how-the-us-pulled-off-a-major-freeze-of-libyan-assets/2011/03/11/ABBckxJB_story.html

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