Some (More) Thoughts on Libya

Libya: Some thoughts

Where did we get to in our analogy?

We have two boys fighting in the school yard. Let's call them G and R for ease.

G appears to be armed with weapons.

Along comes Teacher, and punches G to protect R.

However, the teacher believes that they are behaving in the name of liberty, when in fact, what they are actually doing is feeling guilty for giving G the weapon in the first place.

So now, Teacher decides to go in, and give R some weapons too, while punching G.

And then, it gets even more complicated.

The teacher has decided, that not only will they punch G, they will also punch R if R uses those weapons against G.

To make matters even more confusing, they've called a parent-teacher conference, but the parents and teachers cant quite work out what to do, or how to deal with G and R and all their bickering.

So, the teacher-parent conference decides to do is reform the entire play ground on which G and R are bickering.

So what exactly are the benefits of this?

Recent discussions on Question Time and Any Answers have raised the issue of whether Libya will be another Iraq. To be fair, Iraq was almost a success, when you compare it to Afghanistan.

It is a far worse fate would Libya be rendered as entrenched in civil war as Afghanisatn is.

At least Iraq, in theory, has been resolved.