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.