Today too often people in the media seem to dismiss a UN or NATO intervention in Libya by referring to the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Certainly these are failures, both on a diplomatic scale and a military one. However, the comparison that is apt and much more pertinent to international shame is Yugoslavia. EU nations readily recognized segments of the former Yugoslavia encouraging secession yet failed to come to the aid of these supposed, "ethnic enclaves" when the forces of the Yugoslav army and Croat militias controlled by the communist leaders of Serbia began ethnic cleansing. It is certainly apparent that Libyans deserve intervention to stop the massacre, but it is the moral authority of the west that is again on trial here.
If the fall of the Soviet Union created a new array of forces, global capital vs al-Qaeda, then the situation in Libya is an opportunity for both to act to demonstrate their superiority. If the UN and NATO fail it will reinforce the racist picture of Muslim Bosnians being slaughtered by Serbs and Croats, and show that the international community is only acting on the basis of narrow interests. If al-Qaeda fails to act it will prove that its organization is directed by the same narrow interests as its founder in following a fanatical road of dogmatic eternal war.
The international community could act as it should have acted in Yugoslavia to stop a nation from spiraling into chaos. Now is the time to move to prevent disaster. The UN should first declare a no-fly zone, then seize the holdings of the Gadhafi family. The UN should direct NATO to remove refugees and deliver medical supplies as well as blockade any military supplies from arriving. NATO should be directed to order all hostilities to end. Even if the reality of producing these ends were weeks in the making, it would put Libyan military officers on notice that their personal actions would be weighed in the face of international law.