US Seeks Backing for Libya Intervention

Military Mulls Different Ways to Meddle in Uprising

US diplomats are looking to drum up international support while the military is said to be looking at “all options” available for a possible military intervention into the Libyan Revolution, which at this point appears to be on the verge of ousting dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan confirmed that discussions are underway for different contingencies for military intervention in Libya, and that they are discussing a “full range of options” with possible allies, though he declined to get specific about what form this might take.

At the same time, President Obama has been in talks playing up the violent crackdown by Gadhafi and seeking to gather sufficient international support for a possible intervention.

Though clearly the massive death tolls in Libya have shocked the world, it seems a prospective invasion is very much “after the fact” at this point, as Gadhafi’s regime appears to have minimal ability to launch operations outside of the immediate area around Tripoli anymore, and even this city appears on the brink of falling to the increasingly well organized opposition.

At this point, with the regime clearly on the way out, the intervention could only be seen as meddling by the resurgent opposition, and the inevitable US demands on how the post-Gadhafi government might be run would be bound to provoke anti-US resentment in the region, and ensure that the country (as with other US-occupied nations) will remain unstable long after the ouster of their former regime.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.