I’ve never seen a weaker intellectual argument for any position than this from one of W’s speech writers advocating intervention in Libya.
Why U.S. must intervene in Libya By David Frum CNN Contributor, March 7, 2011
There just aren’t any conservatives left in the nation. What part of not involving America in foreign entanglements do people not get?
The first refuge of the uninformed advocate is conflation – Frum is guilty of the dumbest apples and oranges arguments possible. Ask yourself some of these questions:
· Are Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan not sufficient experience to influence this debate?
· Has a no-fly zone ever resulted in regime change? Answer: never.
· Does any American believe that America should be the world’s police force? Does any foreign nation believe that America should play that role? Answer to the second question: hell no.
· Will intervention there result in better relations with Libyans, Muslims, any Arab state, any adversarial state or any ally? Arguably, intervention would earn the reverse in every case.
· Is there some strategic American interest that would be forwarded by our intervention in Libya? Does America intervene in the business of sovereign nations in pursuit of our strategic interests? Answer to the second question: the answer should be never but during the cold war we did it fairly often. How did that work out for us?
· Will intervention in Libya save lives? Is saving lives sufficient reason for America to intervene in a sovereign nation?
o 800 Egyptians died in the confrontation with Mubarak.
o How many Vietnamese and Cambodians died after America gave up its intervention in Vietnam? Answer: well more than 2 million.
o How many Iraqis died at the hands of Saddam Hussein after we imposed the no-fly zone?
o The UN could have saved lives in Rwanda but chose not to even though it had troops on the ground. Should America have done what the UN would not?
o This saving lives question is a lawyer’s question – it’s intended as a trap. Complexity makes the answer unknowable; in war, enemy deaths are good, the more the better; in Libya, beyond Gaddafi himself, who is the enemy? Who are the bad guys? Who are the innocents?
The fact that we will be severely criticized by nearly every foreign nation and constituency for whatever choice we make as a nation should be relevant only to the argument that we must do what is right by our standards. It is my conviction that our traditional standard as a nation is to avoid involving ourselves in the internal disputes of foreign nations.
Here’s a little refresher map of the Mediterranean.
And here is the Mideast.
I’d show you where America lies in relation to these countries but I imagine you get the idea. Let the EU establish a no-fly zone. What, their combined air force is smaller than Saudi Arabia’s? Then hire the Saudis. How about Turkey? Let the freaking Frogs do it – nobody would be hurt because they won’t fire a weapon. Let’s see, Libya is part of Africa, how about them? India, China and Russia are nearby. I’d suggest the UN do it but that would just mean that we’d be doing it. Ditto NATO.
Let’s get America back to basics.
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