Saturday, March 19, 2011

New Case for a Humanitarian Intervention

The United States and the European Union are calling for a "no-fly zone" over Libya as a way to thwart government attacks on revel forces and Libyan citizens. The Security Council has approved the action, with Russia and China abstaining from the vote-however not vetoing the action. This is an interesting occurrence, because in a way, it is a humanitarian intervention, albeit not the kind that was utilized in Kosovo, Somalia, or Sri Lanka. The no-fly zone, which is already implemented as France is already underway in patrolling the skies, is not directly intended to kill Qaddafi-backed forces, although this will probably will occur, but rather as a way to prevent Qaddafi from using aerial bombings - something that the rebel forces cannot defend against. And as in the video below, a jet was already shot down over Benghazi, although it is unclear how it was downed.

How the US and other EU states will participate remains to be seen. Qaddafi is obviously not happy, and has written letters to both Obama and France, the UK, and the UN (collaboratively), claiming that intervening in Libyan domestic affairs will only hurt the region and Souther Europe. If the US gets involved, they may try to mission creep into Somalia, but this is HIGHLY speculative, and this observation comes from un-credible news reports such as this.

Below is a video posted on the BBC that shows a Libyan fighter jet shot down and talks about the no-fly zone humanitarian intervention

No comments:

Post a Comment