On Buchanan's "Foolish and Unconstitutional War"

The current military action in Libya is technically speaking not a war. It is a political use of military force, to forestall an imminent humanitarian disaster, which might have had catastrophic consequences for the those in Arab countries, who are currently rising up to demand their political rights. In that respect, it is a classic case of what Bleckman and Kaplan (1978) define as a use of force for political, rather than martial purposes.

The multilateral use of military force in Libya is intended to send a message to the Libyan regime that it must change course, and not slaughter its own people, for rising up to demand their political rights. Unless the Qaddafi regime survives, to slaughter the civilians he was threatening to, this mission will be a resounding success. That is why President Obama is calling for Qaddafi's ouster.

Of course, it is also possible that a humbled Qaddafi will get the message, even if he survives. In that case, success might also be measured by the number of Libyan lives the international community, under a UN mandate and American and NATO leadership saves. It is quite baffling that some of the leaders in the Congress and the Senate will refuse to understand that this is a matter that implicates the national interests of the United States, both in terms of America's long-standing commitment to democratic transformations in autocratic states, and in terms of upholding certain international values regarding human rights and crimes against humanity.

There would have been no possible way for President Obama and the world community to explain satisfactorily, why they did not act to save those fighting for their political rights, in spite of the fact that the Qaddafi regime announced its plans to massacre them en masse.

Libya: Ensuring that Qaddafi does not succeed

The final outcome of this conflict should determine the kind of institutional and operational structures within the African Union, which will should be kept alive. The African Union and its member states, cannot stand by and do nothing to forcefully stop the slaughter of Africans by their supposed government.

President Jonathan in Nigeria should step out and lead the AU out of its inaction on this matter. If he has any vision for change, he should use it now to move African states to finally repudiate the idea that a government, in the name of state sovereignty, can commit crimes against its citizens and not be held accountable by the international community. This is a time for leadership.

As things stand, whether the Qaddafi regime succeeds in keeping its hold on power or not, after this crisis, its legitimacy will be in tatters, and it does not have the kind of power that a China has in international politics, to ward off such a devastating blow in the international community, as China was able to do after the Tienanmen Square massacre in 1989.

President Obama, whose performance on this matter has been outrageously weak, should immediately move towards leading NATO members, to recognizing the provisional authority that the Libyan opposition is putting together, and to start a massive effort to both arm the opposition and to ensure that the Qaddafi regime does not survive.

I thank you.

Fubara David-West.