Libya No-Fly Zone Belatedly Established

Regarding the recent decision on the part of the United States government to seek UN and NATO cooperation to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya after two weeks of hemming and hawing around while dictator Gadhafi regained the edge in that country's civil war, I wonder whether the action now taken is too late. Anyone could see that there was a time when Gadhafi was on the verge of being driven out when he then began to use his nation's air force against his own people, employing a brutal sweeping bombing campaign against rebels with little or no regard for human life. And the U.S. under Obama just stood around with the president making tepid statements to the effect that Gadhafi was on the wrong side of history and needed to go. Now that the rebels have been driven back to a defensive stance and Gadhafi's loyalists have been allowed the time to entrench themselves, it looks as if we are now in for a totally avoidable and prolonged conflict destined to cost many more lives than if Obama had acted in a more timely fashion.

Now reports are coming out that it was Obama's Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who opposed military involvement in Libya and who initially prevailed over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who wanted a no-fly zone established and enforced from the beginning when it became apparent as to what Gadhafi's intentions were. Obama should have paid more attention to Clinton as she was in the White House throughout her husband's presidency when he had to confront similar crises in Rwanda and Bosnia (lives lost through inaction and delay) and Haiti and Kosovo (lives saved through quick action).

The Arab League has strongly endorsed the no-fly zone over Libya and welcomed the U.S. involvement, quite a departure from its reaction to the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld invasion of Iraq in 2003. And also unlike Iraq, there will be no American ground combat forces in Libya.

So I welcome the decision to set up a no-fly zone in Libya and give the rebels a fighting chance to survive. But the action may have come too late, a hesitation that I think is almost unforgivable.