It's now official. Secretary of State Clinton seems eager to do much more than the bombing required to create a no-fly zone:
With the recent advances made by pro-Qaddafi forces in the east, there was a growing consensus in the Obama administration that imposing a no-fly zone by itself would no longer make much of a difference and that there was a need for more aggressive airstrikes that would make targets of Colonel Qaddafi’s tanks and heavy artillery an option sometimes referred to as a no-drive zone. The United States or its allies might also send military personnel to advise and train the rebels, an official said.
So the United States is embarking on another effort at nation-building in a Muslim country where there is no nation.
And don't tell me we can stop short of this. If you are bombing a territory and arming and advising rebels within it, you are a part of the war. And you are responsible for its consequences. I simply cannot believe that the US is taking custody of yet another chaotic region we cannot begin to understand in favor of people we do not know against a crazy tyrant we spent the past few years rehabilitating.
Well, I can believe it. If we had elected John McCain, it would be highly believable.
(Photo: Permanent representatives from the United Kingdom, Mark Lyall Grant, left, and the United States, Susan Rice, right, vote to approve a resolution that will impose a no-fly zone over Libya during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council at UN headquarters Thursday, March 17, 2011. In addition to the no-fly zone, the resolution authorizes "all necessary measures" to protect civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi's forces. By Jason DeCrow/AP)