As Josh Rogin reports, Sens. Joe Lieberman and John McCain have issued statements calling on the Obama administration to intervene to stop Moammar Gaddafi from slaughtering his own people, alongside many of the the foreign-policy luminaries who helped push the United States into war with Iraq.But human-rights groups have also been critical of the administration's response.
Over at Foreign Policy, Human Rights' First Tom Malinowski writes that the international community has "failed to pick the low hanging fruit" of what could be quickly achieved in Libya:
There are numerous steps the United States and its allies can take today to affect the immediate calculations of the Qaddafi regime. Europe buys 85 percent of Libya's oil, after all. And the West largely controls the international financial system through which the Libyan leadership moves its money -- and could block transactions with one word from the Treasury Department or other finance ministries. And there's more: Western governments could say today that they will seek international investigations and prosecutions of Libyan officials who murder their people. And they could offer to provide humanitarian assistance to parts of Libya that have fallen to the opposition.
Likewise, Human Rights' First urged the U.S. to take other steps, including setting up a no-fly zone:
Lead efforts to impose multilateral sanctions on the Libyan government through the United Nations.
Call for immediate enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya and an arms embargo to the nation.
Impose targeted sanctions on Gaddafi, his family members and others now implicated in human rights abuses and possible crimes against humanity.
Support efforts to remove Libya from membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council and mobilize support from allies in Africa and Arab World at the United Nations General Assembly.
Issue a complete suspension of all U.S. exports to Libya except humanitarian and medical supplies.
While President Barack Obama did demand that "violence must stop" on Wednesday, the administration has also defended its muted response as necessary for the security of American citizens still within Gaddafi's reach. The demands for intervention, coming from the usual hawks, like Christopher Hitchens and Leon Wieseltier, are perhaps easier to dismiss given that they're more likely than not to call for intervention regardless of the actual circumstances, and there's more than a hint of farce in people who suggested the war in Iraq would be a cakewalk insisting that the choices here are simple. But it's not just them.
Look, obviously a full scale American invasion of Libya would be a bad idea, and America isn't going to be able to dictate an outcome in Libya any more than it could in Egypt. But it seems like there are other, more plausible options short of starting a third war that might help avert a tragedy, and it seems as though the administration is now poised to pursue them.
