I respect those who think we should not be fighting a third war, invading another Arab country, or can't afford this involvement. These people have strong and cogent arguments.
But this is why I think we had to get involved: a country that after 40 years of dictatorship and ruthless suppression, rises up of its own accord, is being murdered by mercenary African soldiers, by indiscriminate bombardment, by jets and over 300 heavy tanks. In contrast, the Libyan freedom fighters have small arms, little warfare training, and no formal organization. Qaddafi has promised to kill anyone who has supported the rebels in any way -- that's well over half the country.
Libya would become the next Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Spain in the 1930s and other countries where the free world has let a tyrant go on a murderous rampage only to wake up to the carnage, with regret and apologies later. No, I am not one of those progressives who oppose all foreign intervention only years later to attend independent movies on the subject, see the dramatization of the atrocities and shake my head grave, amnesia-like judgment. The reality is that there is a mad-man loose in Libya, with billions of barrels of petro-dollars, who is killing his rebelling people with heavy weapons and mercenaries. (Libya is unlike the situation in Iraq which played a key counter-balancing role with Iran.) In this situation, we can and must even the playing field and let the Libyan freedom fighters have a chance to determine the fate of their country. Libyans are begging us. The Arab street wants it. Justice demands it.
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