Wesley Clark lays out his prerequisites for military action, applies them to Libya, and concludes:
Given these rules, what is the wisest course of action in Libya? To me, it seems we have no clear basis for action. Whatever resources we dedicate for a no-fly zone would probably be too little, too late. We would once again be committing our military to force regime change in a Muslim land, even though we can’t quite bring ourselves to say it. So let’s recognize that the basic requirements for successful intervention simply don’t exist, at least not yet: We don’t have a clearly stated objective, legal authority, committed international support or adequate on-the-scene military capabilities, and Libya’s politics hardly foreshadow a clear outcome.
We should have learned these lessons from our long history of intervention. We don’t need Libya to offer us a refresher course in past mistakes.
Exactly right. However, even though I have praised Obama’s caution and restraint so far, in his news conference yesterday he came very close to attaching his prestige and perceived effectiveness to regime change in Libya at a moment in time when Gaddafi appears to have regained the upper hand. It seems even Obama cannot resist the pull that drives America to overcommit time and time again. I hope I am wrong.
