So the Arab League asks the world to intervene in Libya, and set up a no-fly zone so that Qaddafi can’t use aircraft to murder his people so effectively. (“Arab League Endorses No-Flight Zone Over Libya,” NYT, one week ago.)
This has a big impact. It accelerates the global consensus to the point that the UN act quickly — for the UN, anyway — to approve such a measure, and the next day the POTUS delivers the ultimatum, and the day after that, the nations capable of carrying out such a thing start the operation.
Then today, I read this on Twitter:
@washingtonpostThe Washington PostArab League condemns broad bombing campaign in Libya http://wapo.st/gTCYIt
To which I respond, Um… make up your minds, guys. This is what you asked for.
And how could they have not known that? I can understand how someone who doesn’t know anything at all about military operations, and hasn’t even thought about it, might think Western nations are SO powerful than they can just wave a magic wand and clear the skies of bad airplanes.
It doesn’t work like that. You have to send in your own airplanes to shoot those bad airplanes down. And what nation is going to send in its own planes and pilots (and even drones cost money) to be shot down by the bad guy’s surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery? So you send in Wild Weasels and other assets to suppress the enemy’s ability both to launch his own aircraft, and to shoot yours down.
THEN you can safely fly around over Libya, denying that airspace to Qaddafi. It’s called “achieving air superiority.” And it isn’t achieved with magic wands.
This was thoroughly discussed ahead of time. Remember when Robert Gates was speaking out against a no-fly zone? His argument was that it’s a heap o’ trouble, including all of the above. At the time, I thought it odd that he should offer that as an objection, because I figured that anyone seriously advocating for a no-fly zone would understand all that. It’s since been impressed upon me that everyone does NOT know that. OK, I get it — not everyone is either ex-military or an avid reader of Tom Clancy novels. Sometimes you need to explain these things. But Sec. Gates DID explain these things. I remember it being the lead story in the Wall Street Journal one day.
That story, headlined “U.S. Cools ‘Loose Talk’ Over No-Fly Zone,” began like this:
WASHINGTON—The U.S. military would have to launch pre-emptive strikes to destroy Libya’s air defenses should President Barack Obama order imposition of a no-fly zone over the North African country, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday…
It was in no way a secret.
And hey, these guys in the Arab League aren’t hothouse flowers. They should know enough about the ways of the world not to have to have it explained to them.
But the thing is, they DON’T have to have such things explained to them. This is not shocked naivete we’re seeing here.
This is plain old ambivalence, based in the complex politics of the Mideast. As this LAT piece explains:
Arab leaders don’t relish attacking one of their own. But bloodshed across Libya and Western pressure have forced them into supporting international airstrikes against Col.Moammar Kadafi, who in many ways is merely a caricature of monarchies and autocrats throughout the Middle East.
The Arab League urged the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. Now, with French warplanes and U.S. Tomahawk missiles streaking across the North African sky, the league is criticizing the air assault as Arab kings and presidents confront decades-old ironies, religious animosities and fears they will be blamed for siding with Western imperialism.
There are concerns that foreign intervention may reignite Islamic radicalism that so far has not resonated with largely secular protest movements not rooted in religion or ideology. Kadafi has few sympathizers in the region but rallying against him is likely to pose credibility problems for regimes attempting to calm growing dissent at home.
It is a potent combination that highlights the hypocrisy and dangers of Arab politics. The Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes the Sunni-led nations of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, condemned Kadafi’s regime for killing dissidents even as Saudi troops assisted Bahraini security forces last week in a deadly crackdown against Shiite Muslim protesters.
“It’s a double standard,” said Mohammed Tajer, a lawyer defending detained protesters in Bahrain. “The Arab League consists of dictatorships that want to protect their own interests.”
So basically, it’s a CYA thing. They’re trying to have it both ways. We’ve got people in the air putting their lives on the line to get this thing done for them, and they’re trying to have it both ways.
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I blame Obama. Sticking our noses in places we had no business being in. I wish we would stop being the world’s police officers and let some of these countries fight it out among themselves. All we’ve done with these missile launches is waste hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ordinance.
Libyan citizens being killed… don’t care. Gaddafi overstepping his boundaries… don’t care.
I keep seeing this headline “Arab League condemns” etc., but all the stories only quote Abr Moussa, the secretary-general, without any supporting comments from any other Arab League leaders. In fact, the WaPo story goes on to say “it was not clear how many Arab governments shared the hesitations voiced by Moussa…”
Without a doubt, given the nature of some of the governments of the Arab League, doubletalk, hypocrisy, and “CYA” is par for the course. In this case, though, the headlines may be misleading: it could just be Moussa, who is planning to run for President of Egypt, staking out some political space for himself among the Egyptian electorate.
The more worrisome conspiracy theory I’ve seen bandied about is that the Arab League suckered the West into intervening in Libya to take our focus off Saudi intervention in Bahrain, the revolt in Yemen, etc.:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/03/how-clinton-was-punkd.html
Interesting conspiracy theory…
Steven, were you being serious, or were you deliberately mocking the antiwar left?… I blame bush… It’s none of our business… Look at all the money we’re wasting…
Both, mocking… not mocking… don’t care… all of the above.
“Libyan citizens being killed… don’t care. Gaddafi overstepping his boundaries… don’t care.”
To hide behind such talk is as odious as looking the other way when a neighbor is abusing is his children.
Didn’t even spell ordnance right.
It looks like the Arab leaders never believed that the no fly zone proposal would ever pass. Now that they see it executed in Libya, they are scared that Gaddafi is only the first and their countries are going to be next.
Jerome – Is this happening next door?
If The State newspaper can missepll words so can I.
The best thing we can do is to keep supporting the falling dominos.
This thing today with Republicans criticizing military involvement is ironic given Iraq and Afghanistan. Let’s just say that there are certain American ideals which compel action.
Steven Davis – Not caring that life is hard and without much of a future in another land is one thing; not even caring that other people are being slaughtered en masse is quite another thing altogether. To me, that’s a repugnant outlook (which is probably the rise you were looking for sadly).
It appears that once again the socalled “free world” is going to solve the rest of the world’s problems. The Arabs are smart. They get the infidels to do their dirty work and then later they tell their people the infidels should be killed. They simply want to protect their own regimes.
Mark – Don’t care. I’m more interested in what’s happening in this country than what’s happening half-way around the world. Part of the problem with this country is we have the strange need to be involved in every country’s problems. We’ve become a lazy, fat nation of incompetent people who need to tell people how to live their lives… we might as well all be social workers.