A skeptic on Libyan intervention

Foreign Policy magazine has a roundup of responses to the question, "Does the world belong inside Libya's revolution?" Most of the responses are upbeat to various degrees, applauding the Security Council for putting its united muscle behind its lofty rhetoric for once. However, Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations expresses a gloomier opinion that jibes with my own, reassuring to my ego since Zenko undoubtedly knows more about the situation than I do.

In short, while we believe we are ready to "do something" in Libya, we are having a debate over what tactics we find acceptable, rather than what strategy will succeed.

Zenko argues that the world has not done its due-diligence analysis of the Libyan situation: the U.N. resolution articulates a desired end (the protection of Libyan civilians from brutalization at the hands of Qaddafi's military) without articulating what is needed to achieve that end (e.g., no one has explained, or even considered in a serious way, whether regime change is needed).

Zenko's point is essentially the Powell Doctrine applied to the international community.