“NATO officials say the campaign won’t necessarily be seen as a template for further intervention in the Middle East. The Libyan campaign had United Nations backing, giving it a legitimacy that the U.N. isn’t likely to bestow too readily on other interventions, observers say. Cash-strapped Western governments and their war-weary publics have little appetite for more costly and riskier military adventures.” (Wall Street Journal)
Maybe not a template, but how about a justification: “Hey, it worked in Libya . . .”?
FEE Timely Classic
“Anti-Interventionism Is Cold Indifference? It Just Ain’t So!” by Gary Chartier