Uncommon Commentary #162: Lift up Your Head, O Ye Gates

Defense Secretary Gates, whose inclusion in the "Cabinet" was one of Emperor Nerobama's least-unsatisfactory personnel choices, said that [the establishment of] “a no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses” and that an operation of that sort “also requires more airplanes than you can find on a single aircraft carrier, [and] so it is a big operation in a big country.”  If his purpose in saying this was only to caution against thinking that this kind of intervention would be a simple matter, then his words are welcome; if his purpose was to argue that the creation of such a zone could entangle the USA in another serious conflict, then they may be just an excuse for inaction.  Gaddafi, whose energy is devoted entirely to quashing the rebellion in his own country, won't wage war versus the USA (unless perhaps he perceives the Obama Nation as being too effete to resist adequately), and it's unlikely that Western action this late in the rising against Gaddafi will result in the strongman's ouster, leading to another episode of quixotic "nation-building."