Now What?

They told me that if I voted for John McCain the president would lead us into war without congressional approval, and they were right!

The Libyan government declared an immediate cease-fire Friday in a bid to head off Western military intervention on behalf of rebels seeking to overthrow longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi, hours after the U.N. Security Council authorized a no-fly zone and the use of “all necessary measures” to protect civilians.

I'm glad that Qaddafi is not slaughtering the people of Benghazi today and it would please me greatly if he winds up on the receiving end of a 500 lb. bomb in the next few days. But I'm not entirely sold on US involvement in Libya right now. 

Someone named Shadi Hamid believes that US intervention is a "moral imperative." Perhaps it is, but morality can be a complicated thing. Moral codes during wartime can be particularly tricky, as our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown. So before we get too deep into this Libya thing, can we take a moment and identify the moral code we will be operating under?

Is it the moral code that turns a blind eye when combatants endanger civilians by wearing similar clothing and hiding among them, even sometimes using them as human shields? Is that the moral code?

Is it the moral code that demands harsh judgment against the US military when it admits and investigates the accidental and wrongful deaths of civilians by its hands, yet greets the deliberate targeting of civilians by our enemies with a stony silence?

Is it the moral code that judged the US guilty of not providing security when terrorist bombs exploded in Iraq and slaughtered dozens, instead of the barbarians that perpetrated those acts?

Is it the moral code whose only response when IEDs destroyed infrastructure in Iraq was to blame the US for not providing services?

Before we risk one American life I think we should know if the answer is yes to the above questions. Because if it is, I think we would be better of letting that moral code take care of the problem itself.