Interesting Point

Leslie Gelb says: if Arabs and everyone else wants a no-fly zone over Libya, they should do it themselves.

I like the positions I've heard Gelb expound recently - and they basically amount to - I'm tired of America being the sucker. Everyone is bullshitting us. In Afghanistan, the Pakis want us to stay, give them money and meanwhile fund the Taliban and provide them haven. We tell them to stop and they say, well, if you leave, we need to hedge our bets. Fuck you, Pakistan. You're not our friends. Same thing with the Arab League and the Euros - they don't give a shit about Libya. They want to get themselves off by taking a cost-less moralistic position and wait for the US to act. If we don't, they criticize our lack of support for Arab democracy, if we do, and it goes well, they say they supported it all along. It goes bad, oh well, it isn't their blood or money.

I am often persuaded by the moral arguments, but appreciate a candid realist position to really test myself.