UN Backs Action Against Colonel Gaddafi

chielk writes "The UN Security Council has backed a no-fly zone over Libya and 'all necessary measures' short of an invasion 'to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas.' The UK, France and Lebanon proposed the council resolution, with US support."

Not only a no fly zone

[rbarreira]

It's not only a no fly zone authorization. As I understood it, this UN resolution permits everything except a foreign invasion of Lybia.

Don't be surprised if planes are soon (or now) attacking Lybian military targets to weaken Gaddafi.

Re:fueled by the hope that the UN will

[the linux geek]

Oh, shut up. The US was perfectly willing to remove Qaddafi in the 80's, and made a credible attempt to kill him. It's been held back by the Europeans, the UN, and the Arab League until it was politically chic to oppose Qaddafi, and only now are they okay with such things.

That works until you think

[abulafia]

After about five minutes of reflection, you realize that this instability is inherent in a changing environment,

Gas ain't going down. Burning dinosaurs4cash is a time limited model, which is why people are so pissed off about it.

What is interesting is that, hey, we give proles communicatn tech, and whaddiya know, they use it. Well, it seems, and that's going to get better. The cypherpunks were not stupid.

Re:Hypocrisy of Arabic governments and our own

[Anonymous Coward]

And here I thought it was all set in motion because a Tunisian street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi self immolated after local authorities ignored him when he was trying to get redress after a policewoman confiscated his wares. Silly me.

Re:fueled by the hope that the UN will

[Wyatt Earp]

If Reagan or Bush had been able to get a UN Resolution for a No Fly Zone over Libya in the 80s we would have and the US Navy would have had a holiday blowing the crap out of Libya's navy and air force.

But the Cold War kept it from happening, the Arab League thought he was one of their guys and OPEC liked him.

Hell NATO couldn't agree on action against him, with Italy, France and Spain being against US/UK pressure on Libya.

Re:May Not Be Enough

[CodeBuster]

Well, with no air defenses and no air force Gadhafi would be powerless to prevent US Air Force B-52s [wikipedia.org], from knocking out every tank, vehicle and artillery piece caught out in the open. There is no way that a third rate military power, especially not Libya which has good flying weather and lots of flat terrain, can win in open battle against the United States Navy and Air Forces. It wouldn't remove Gadhafi from power directly, but it would completely wreck his ground forces, rendering him vulnerable to rebel counter-attacks. The rebels are begging us to even the odds and Gadhafi has been a thorn in our collective sides for decades now. We shouldn't miss this opportunity to give Gadhafi a black eye.