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<blockquote class="Quote"><div><strong class="bc-author">Horseleech</strong> said:</div><div><blockquote class="Quote"><div><strong class="bc-author">BobDesperado</strong> said:</div><div>http://www.juancole.com/2011/03/top-ten-ways-that-libya-2011-is-not-iraq-2003.html</div></blockquote>
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	Most of these are really lame and easily dismantled.</div></blockquote>
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	But not by you.  That would require making an argument instead of just stating your usual infallible conclusion.<br />
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	By "most," you're admitting to some being possibly valid, of course.  <br />
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	I think the first six on the list are compelling:<br />
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	"1. The action in Libya was authorized by the United Nations Security Council. That in Iraq was not. By the UN Charter, military action after 1945 should either come as self-defense or with UNSC authorization. Most countries in the world are signatories to the charter and bound by its provisions.<br />
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	2. The Libyan people had risen up and thrown off the Qaddafi regime, with some 80-90 percent of the country having gone out of his hands before he started having tank commanders fire shells into peaceful crowds. It was this vast majority of the Libyan people that demanded the UN no-fly zone. In 2002-3 there was no similar popular movement against Saddam Hussein.<br />
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	3. There was an ongoing massacre of civilians, and the threat of more such massacres in Benghazi, by the Qaddafi regime, which precipitated the UNSC resolution. Although the Saddam Hussein regime had massacred people in the 1980s and early 1990s, nothing was going on in 2002-2003 that would have required international intervention.<br />
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	4. The Arab League urged the UNSC to take action against the Qaddafi regime, and in many ways precipitated Resolution 1973. The Arab League met in 2002 and expressed opposition to a war on Iraq. (Reports of Arab League backtracking on Sunday were incorrect, based on a remark of outgoing Secretary-General Amr Moussa that criticized the taking out of anti-aircraft batteries. The Arab League reaffirmed Sunday and Moussa agreed Monday that the No-Fly Zone is what it wants).<br />
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	5. None of the United Nations allies envisages landing troops on the ground, nor does the UNSC authorize it. Iraq was invaded by land forces.<br />
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	6. No false allegations were made against the Qaddafi regime, of being in league with al-Qaeda or of having a nuclear weapons program. The charge is massacre of peaceful civilian demonstrators and an actual promise to commit more such massacres."<br />
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	It's entirely possible that this will end up as a disaster, but it's ridiculous to equate it with the invasion of Iraq.

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