Putting our forces at risk of death and using force in the internal affairs of another country demands incontestable reasons. I will vote against the action in Libya for 5 main reasons:
- As in Iraq this is a western owned action, the Arab world is barely represented militarily, even nearby “democratised” Egypt will not get involved.
- This our third current hostile action in the Muslim world, it could take one bombed wedding convoy, one mistreated prisoner, for the whole of Arab sentiment to change.
- Our intervention is selective and expedient: why only in oil rich Libya? What standards or criteria apply to no-fly zones so that may be applied in future, say in a Rwanda or a Gaza, to ensure they give us moral authority?
- We continue to support many autocratic regimes in the region - as we did with Mubarak and Gaddafi when it suited us - which repress democracy and womens rights.
- Currently in Libya (as in pre-invasion Iraq) Al Qaida has no base; in the death and destruction of a civil war with the West taking one side Al Qaida could hardly wish for a better, further breeding ground for terrorism which will eventually reach the UK.
