Originally posted by truejedi
a peculiar thing to say. They don't have an army, but they do have the backing of the more powerful nations of the world.
IIRC China, Brazil, America, and India alone provide more than half of the UNSC's Peacekeeping funds and manpower.
Edit: Nvm. Just checked, turns out I got India right but the others aren't even in the top 10 of troop contributions lol.
Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Yup, just 100 thousand "peacekeepers".
they have peacekeepers in a position to enforce a no fly zone?
Originally posted by truejedi
a peculiar thing to say. They don't have an army, but they do have the backing of the more powerful nations of the world.
The US is involved in 2 wars, NATO in afghanistan, Russia and China will not be involved.
As a Canadian, I don't like that my tax dollars go to killing people in Afghanistan. I certainly don't want them to spend more of them on killing more people.
The even bigger problem is this:
[list]
[*] If Ghaddafi is using military technology to kill civilians, the UN will pass a security resolution, requiring its member states to neutralize that military technology.
[*] Since Ghaddafi used planes, we are institution a no fly zone. However, Ghaddafi also has artillery and tank divisions, and heavily fortified positions throughout the country. The same logic that justifies the use of force against planes, justifies the use of force against other things standing in the way of the Rebels from seizing power.
[*] There is reasonable concern that throwing our military support behind the Libyan resistance will involve NATO forces in another war against a predominantly muslim population. At the very least, images of American and European planes bombing Tripoli's air defenes are going to be a PR nightmare.
/rant, maybe it was pecuilar, idk, I'm not happy with the decision...
Originally posted by inimalist
[b][*] There is reasonable concern that throwing our military support behind the Libyan resistance will involve NATO forces in another war against a predominantly muslim population. At the very least, images of American and European planes bombing Tripoli's air defenes are going to be a PR nightmare./rant, maybe it was pecuilar, idk, I'm not happy with the decision... [/B]
congress did vote on the iraq war actually.
Originally posted by Omega Vision
Were either of those 'strong' though?
well, in Afghanistan they controlled the norther mountain regions that the Taliban had never been able to take during the decades of civil war, so yes.
In Iraq, various groups had at times challanged Saddam, the closest they had come being when they had some major generals in the army willing to turn on him, but Saddam always won out and brutally destroyed the people who resisted. It would be strikingly similar to what we see in Libya if Ghaddafi wins out, though probably on a smaller scale.
Remember, humanitarian assistance for the people of Iraq was a selling point of the Iraq war, same as in Libya
There is also the question of, what happens if we support the rebels, and then their society breaks along racial or tribal grounds in the aftermath?
black africans have already claimed they are being targeted by the rebels as potential mercenaries, and Al Jazeera has shown their homes and places of work attacked. Do we want to be known as the people who helped support ethnic violence?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12795971
Apparently France has "fired the first shot" of the UN intervention effort, interestingly enough it doesn't say anything about an aircraft, which leads me to believe the target was a ground vehicle.
Could they be employing the "no drive zone" concept already?
Originally posted by Omega Vision
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12795971Apparently France has "fired the first shot" of the UN intervention effort, interestingly enough it doesn't say anything about an aircraft, which leads me to believe the target was a ground vehicle.
Could they be employing the "no drive zone" concept already?
The first stage in making a no-fly zone is to destroy anti-aircraft weapons so that friendly fighters can operate safely.