Like this:

In my last post I noted that I thought the Obama administration had handled the Libyan crisis well so far. (see here) Unfortunately, since then, the Obama administration has ramped up its rhetoric and actions, including telling Ghadafi to “leave now”, and bringing major military equipment into range of Libya.

While I personally would rather see Ghadafi go, I think the US should definitely not get involved in Libya.

We could have a long, interesting debate about the ethics of foreign powers getting involved in countries where there were alleged to have been war crimes or serious catastrophes.

But the fact is, whatever the ethical aspects, foreign powers getting involved in the conflict militarily, would not be advisable for a wide range of reasons, including potentially the best interests of the Libyan people.

Further, at bare minimum, foreign powers should definitely not overstep the requests of pro-democracy demonstrators cum resistance fighters, which have so far consisted of no-fly zones.  Even this is questionable, because then the foreign powers would essentially be taking sides militarily for one side, and against another.  Does the presumed “ethical upper hand” of the opposition demonstrators justify foreign military activities?  Do the murders of peaceful demonstrators by Ghadafi justify a military action?

These two last questions are particularly difficult, and are essentially subjective judgments.  I would say, at this historical junction, that foreign powers should only get involved militarily in a conflict against the wishes of one or both parties, when the atrocities alleged are on a fairly large scale.

 

In an interesting analysis of this same issue, the ethics of “the international community” getting involved in cases of abuse and killings of civilians, Peter Singer writes this article (Global Justice and Intervention).  He is more pro-intervention than I am, I think, but its interesting to see the logic behind this position.