National Security

Slippery Slope

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC | March 17, 2011 | +

We told you Monday that it was too late for the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and think it would make any difference to the civil war down below. Wednesday, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., agreed.

“The U.S. view is that we need to be prepared to contemplate steps that include, but perhaps go beyond, a no-fly zone at this point, as the situation on the ground has evolved, and as a no-fly zone has inherent limitations in terms of protection of civilians at immediate risk,” Rice said.

U.S. officials say that means offensive air strikes against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces are now on the table, a first for the Obama Administration. Stay tuned: the U.N. Security Council is expected to take up the issue later Thursday.

Related Topics: libya, no-fly zone, National Security

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  • hippooath

    What about all the other countries then? What if people in Saudi Arabia starts protesing and the military attacks them? Who’s side are we going to take then? What about China? North Korea?
    .
    Lets not.
    .
    I’d love for every single person to be free in the world, but one person ‘freedom’ might not be the kind of freedom you and I consider sacred. It might just be another Iraq kind of freedom – and can we really afford paying for another one of those?

  • swissArmyBrainBETA

    it starts with no fly, and then maybe some light airstrikes, but before you even know what’s happening, SHE’S PREGNANT. if i learned anything in youth group, that’s where all slippery slopes end up.

  • centfan

    A game of spin the carrier group when the parents aren’t home will always lead to trouble.

  • centfan

    Could it be that Libya simply isn’t ready for independence from Gaddafi? If enough folks in the country are betting on Gaddafi’s side and if most of the freedom fighters act like yahoos firing AK-47s at anything that flies over at thirty thousand feet then maybe it’s likely that no one has a clue what post-Gaddafi Libya is supposed to look like or how to capitalize on precision airstrikes called in by a “Curveball” wannabe.

  • http://nakedempire.wordpress.com nakedempire

    “Maps of War”………5000 yrs of history in 90 seconds

    http://nakedempire.wordpress.com/

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