Perhaps not entirely on-topic as this isn't in particularly about Libya, but America and her allies cannot win no matter what decision they make. The Libyans ask for help, people ask for the USA to take a more proactive role, either way they will be criticised for not doing enough or doing too much. If the USA gets itself involved, it'll receive the same negative criticism and add more fuel to the fire that has created such a backlash in recent years through its involvement in the Middle East.
I used to hate the USA with a passion, or at least its foreign policies, but I've figured out that it's just so acceptable to hate the USA that most people don't even question it, and indeed I didn't myself. No matter what decision they make, I would have found a way to channel my frustrations.
I'd put in a quote by Mark Steyn, who I do not like but who I do find some common things I can agree with:
All dominant powers are hated – Britain was, and Rome – but they’re usually hated for the right reasons. The fanatical Muslims despise America because it's all lapdancing and gay porn; the secular Europeans despise America because it's all born-again Christians hung up on abortion; the anti-Semites despise America because it's controlled by Jews. Too Jewish, too Christian, too Godless, America is also too isolationist, except when it's too imperialist.
Too Christian, too Godless, too isolationist, too imperialist, too seductive, too cretinous, America is George Orwell's Room 101: whatever your bugbear, you will find it therein - for the Continentals, excessive religiosity; for the Muslims, excessive decadence; for Harold Pinter, excessively bleeding rectums.
And that is the reality. No matter who you are or what you believe in, the sad reality is most people look to the USA to fix things, and also look to the USA to blame things. I want what is in the best interest for Libya and to see Libya turn into a prosperous democracy, but I do know that the USA would be damned either way, most probably by those who ask for her help now but will be angered at her intervention in seven months time.
Topic: Intervention in Libya?