Agreed, it is complex. I'm glad that this is an international effort.

You remind me of when I visited Ireland as a student. The citizens we stayed with were quick to remind us of misplaced American support for a group who were essentially terrorists. Looking back, that brief stay was quite the educational experience.

I would have been totally against it if the US was involved in other than a support role. The neo-cons were frothing at the mouth wanting to quickly start another war. No matter how this one turns out, waiting until there was international support was the right decision.

Agree and it's what we should have done before invading Iraq as well.

Peter King (R-NY) head of the congressional committee investigating to determine if American Muslims are a threat and support Islamic radicalism defended his support of the IRA saying that the IRA were just defending themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=1vqXb9h8gs8

That means we would have never invaded Iraq which would have been great.

If you haven't seen this yet, it's well worth a look, especially for the hypocrisy exposed.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/th...-ira-terrorism

I mentioned this to my OH today. I know Khadaffi (or however the hell his name is spelled) is a terrible dictator and should be removed. However, if we are going to stand on that pedestal, why weren't we there for Rwanda, or why aren't we stopping the rampage in Darfur? By participating in this attack, we are essentially saying that Khadaffi doesn't have the right to take back his own country from rebels. That just doesn't sit 100% well with me.

Why should we stop at Libya, when there are so many other non-democratic countries that suppress their people's civil rights? That is what I'm most afraid of. Its a slippery slope full of good intentions.

IMHO, the biggest reason why the US gov't joined in was because of the oil. Now there's a big surprise.

yeah... and we should destroy the ice-cap for sinking the Titanic...

I suspect the French are very upset with Libya since they were trying to sell Libya their latest Rafale fighter jets since 2007. Luckily the Libyans didn't purchase the planes and are still using the older French Mirage and Soviet MIGs.

Now that the neo-cons got their wish and got the US to be involved in the no fly zone, they are now saying that does not go far enough and that there needs to be a strategy to get Gaddafi out of power.

The Arab League has put out a statement stating that international force have gone beyond what was authorized in the "no fly" resolution. Where were they when Bob Gates (Secretary of Defense) stated that radar/missile sites and military air fields would need to be attacked to set up a no fly zone?

I see that so far only Qatar from the Arab League has committed planes to patrol the no fly zone. Maybe they would have liked it better if were didn't bomb the radar/missile sites and air fields and then let them patrol the no fly zone and get their pilots and planes shot down.

You wouldn't be saying that if you lived in Iraq.

but what made that situation especially special compared to all the other dictator ran countries where horrid things happened? Nothing, but the oil.