Since Muammar Gaddafi’s 1969 coup in Libya, the United States has had a less-than-desirable relationship with the reactionary dictator. Similarly, other Arab nations have expressed their disdain for Gaddafi and his supporters. So when Libyan protestors sparked a revolution against their oppressor, democratic nations encouraged him to step
down. When that didn’t work, the United Nations Security Council authorized a no-fly zone above the country last week and a resolution that has essentially bound America in an agreement that if things in Libya escalate, the United Nations would take any means necessary to help the rebels and potentially oust Gaddafi.
President Barack Obama and his administration have clearly stated that they will not lead the United States into a war with Libya, another conflict in the Middle East that would mark the third time America has militarily engaged this troubled region in recent years. In some ways, this brewing conflict feels all-too familiar, with the United States and its allies challenging an overreaching dictator who has committed crimes against his own people. But there are reasons for which a U.S.-led war against Libya would be nothing like its predecessors, reasons that give military involvement greater credence.
As opposed to 2003 when President George W. Bush and his advisors barged ahead into a war with Iraq without the consent of the United Nations, Obama is actively engaging in diplomacy with the other U.N. members to find a solution to the Libyan question, albeit a violent one. The trouble is, however, Gaddafi seems to be seizing the opportunity to wage war against the United States alone, using sensationalist images to propagandize the conflict and characterize it as yet another American incursion in the Middle East. Yet Gaddafi doesn’t appear to be speaking for all of his own people, against whom he’s waging a violent campaign intended to crush any hint of dissent.
The United States has the support of the other U.N. members because the cause to assist the rebels is a just one. The Libyan conflict is a case in which the Gaddafi regime infringed on its own people’s human rights to petition their government, a right worth fighting for. Clearly, Obama doesn’t want to engage in another economically depleting war, but that doesn’t mean the United States and the United Nations should shy away from giving the Libyan rebels means to further their cause for democracy.
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