No good options on Libya

[fdmts]

I think that the US and the rest of the world are probably doing about as well as can be expected with Libya. There is no unconditionally correct answer here. No matter what we do, people will die violently and chaos will win the day for months and years to come. If we’ve learned nothing else from Iraq and Afghanistan, it must be that the “you

Comments

this is news to me

[amnesiadust]

Thereby showing once again that I depend more on "meta-news" than actual news. :)

Not sure how I feel about this. I agree that when we intervene in another country, for whatever reason, we need to be available for the long haul. I am skeptical about our ability to see the process through when our government obviously doesn't think nation-building is of any value even in our own nation. Moreover, I am gravely concerned about, as you say, differences in "national focus and commitment" since the big wars of the past. At some point, I don't know when it's going to happen, the US is simply going to have to raise taxes, and raise them progressively, in order to pay for the government's ability to do what we think is right both at home and abroad -- and that would be a lot easier if we thought of it as the price of living in a great country, rather than an affront to our right to private property

Confusion

[fdmts]

So are you really saying that the US is saving Lybia and you are hopeful about the type of commitment (of 50 yrs or so) this nation will give this other poor nation, and that, furthermore, the US will NOT take any of its resources???

Absolutely not. What I'm saying is: "It fills me with sorrow to see troops - American or otherwise - thrust into harm’s way. Men and women, Americans and Libyans, are going to be injured and killed in the coming weeks. Perhaps more important, we’re busily creating yet another generation that will remember the American weapons that killed their fathers and uncles."

I have no illusions that congress will do what I suggested and take responsibility to clean up after ourselves and make amends for the people we're killing. I wish that they would, but I don't think it'll happen.

You seem to be giving too much credit to America, where none is due.
But maybe that's what it is to be patriotic.

That's not what I think patriotism is (or love, for that matter) - but that's a different conversation.

And then