Although the situation in Libya is certainly a cause for international concern, the suggestion that the US should initiate any kind of military action there is absurd. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently stated that there was active discussion of implementing a no-fly zone over Libya similar to that which the UN imposed on southern Iraq after the first Gulf war. Fortunately, minds with more military experience than Clinton are downplaying the idea. A no-fly zone would ban the flight of all Libyan military aircraft in Libyan air space and sanction the shooting down of any aircraft that violates the order. As one American general put it, “It would be a military operation. It wouldn't be just telling people not to fly airplanes.” And as another general put it, a no-flight zone was “an extraordinarily complex operation to set up.” To make it work, it would require disabling the Libyan air defense systems, presumably with air strikes. Unlike Iraq, however, there has been no UN mandate for a no-fly zone nor has outside intervention been sanctioned. The US or NATO would, therefore, have to undertake the intervention on its own, which is not likely to be a popular move. Although the situation in Libya is both brutal and tragic, it continues to be, for the most part, a domestic conflict, despite Gadaffi's importation of mercenaries from other African countries to fight rebels trying to overthrow his government. The country may be slipping towards civil war, a situation which the international community should use diplomatic means to try to prevent. Military intervention would be disastrous, engendering the kind of quagmire the US, especially, abhors but has a penchant for engaging in. There could, of course, be a time when outside intervention could be required, but we have yet to reach that point. Hopefully, that point will not be reached, and the Libyans will resolve the increasingly sordid situation on their own. __
