He was talking about Libya and a duty to protect. Given his experience in Rwanda, and our staggering failure to intervene in genocide, this is understandable. We had troops on the ground there and could have acted at minimal cost to prevent great evil.
If, however, we are to apply this doctrine broadly, then we will be compelled to intervene in places where leaders are routinely abusive. Zimbabwe comes to mind. So when do we start bombing Harare? Of course, we are not going to.
We have now involved ourselves in a civil war in Libya -- an inter-tribal civil war. We have taken sides against the regime and so will be compelled to do all we can to defeat that regime. Our erstwhile brave, brave middle eastern allies have abandoned us, though they should be doing the heavy lifting here. They have the means.
By all means ground the Libyan air force and encourage, leverage or whatever Arab neighbors to take responsible action. Given this approach, though, if Ghaddafi does not go quickly, and it does not look like he will, then we will begin to see mission creep as more and more resources are applied to achieving a feel good objective that looked good when it looked quickly doable. This is a dumb, dumb, dumb war.
