Mission Creep over Tripoli
Even as U.S. aircraft fire on Libyan air defenses and ground forces, it is difficult, indeed almost impossible, to make sense of just what exactly are American objectives in its latest round of conflict with elements of the Arab world. For two weeks the Obama administration resisted calls for a no-fly zone. It argued that establishing such a zone was exceedingly difficult—Libya had air defenses that would have to be shut down, and the country was so large that a no-fly zone was virtually impractical.
It then took the United States and its allies less than 24 hours to establish a no-fly zone. So much for the purported difficulties confronting the world’s leading military power. There can now be little doubt that the zone could easily have been established when the Libyan opposition first called for it. But it was not.
Gyrovague's Raves 