Help, Yes; Bombs, No!

It may be right to discuss what the international community can do to prevent further bloodshed in Libya, but the discussion is going in the wrong direction at the moment. U.S. warships patrol off the Libyan coast, and the British talk openly of preparations to impose a no-fly zone over the country. Their goal is to prevent Gaddafi from using his air force to attack his own people.

But whoever promotes these ideas must be clearly aware that it is only a small step from imposing a no-fly zone to a full-blown military confrontation. No one wants that – not even the Libyan rebel forces.

As much as they could use assistance in order to stay on the offensive in a situation that quickly escalated from a protest to a near-civil war, it is more important that Libya’s dictator be toppled by the Libyan people and not by a military attack from the West.

There may be situations in which military involvement would be urgently needed, such as in preventing genocide. If Gaddafi resorted to using his stocks of mustard gas against his own people, an immediate intervention would be a moral and human rights imperative. But despite the brutality evident thus far, there has been no such indication of such an action being contemplated.

Gaddafi’s stranglehold on Libya has been broken; now the Libyans themselves, supported by pressure and humanitarian help from abroad, must take the process to its conclusion. Any outside military intervention, however, would be wrong at this point.