Will No Fly Become Mission Creep?

All wars are not sliding slopes for mission creep. Mission creep is really the deployment and use of the military as a political strategy—the mission creep occurs before the war, and is heavily implied and easily inferred, despite misleading promises. The US did so in Iran, continues in Afghanistan, initiated similar action in Haiti and Somali under Bush41. The difficulty occurs in trying to achieve political objectives and stability  through the use of force--which actually undercuts the stability it is trying to re-enforce.

Libya is different for two reasons. First, there is no grand design to bring democracy or engage in state-building on the part of US or any of the nations supporting the UN resolution.

Secondly, the UN resolution is a historic act of diplomacy. It authorizes the use of necessary military action to preserve civilian lives. For the first time, it authorizes military intervention to prevent internal genocide, something not done in many of the African civil wars, where civilian death tolls reached the hundreds of thousands. Earlier, the Muslim majority in Bosnia met the same fate.

The new resolution marks a new principle: that the sanctity of the state does not allow for state leaders to bring in mercenaries to wantonly slaughter civilian populations to maintain power or secure private wealth, while blaming others and pretending to maintain order. How rich is the irony that Quadifi announces he is being threated by the same terrorist group that plagues the US and Europe; yet he never cites why it is the target of their pursuit. The UN resolution is a “people first” policy that tells the world that nations will use force to protect our innocent brothers and sisters, and leaders can not kill with impunity and hide behind lies.

This is a war well worth fighting. I, for one, don't see the mission creep.