ARAB LEAGUE CALLS FOR A NO-FLY ZONE IN LYBIA

This is from Yahoo News:



I had thought that Italy wanted no part of this. If aircraft could be based in Sicily (or even Aviano), then it would be much easier, and much less expensive to enforce a no-fly zone. O'George has said there is no carrier in the Med. I'd be interested to hear his comment on this.

Sure I will, it is simply not true that "my entire thesis" is based on a declaration of war on Libya. As usual you are just making stuff up about my position.

I do argue that it is an act of war and that is more serious than what some made a "no-fly zone" to sound like initially (e.g. folks like Kerry) but nowhere did I make any kind of legal claim about a declaration of war being needed. So what is your point?



I'm not the one saying you should engage me, I am the one saying that this is profitless. And I can't argue with you if you just make stuff straw men like that. This is the intellectual dishonesty of which I speak that you are so fond of.



If you don't want to don't. I'll probably survive without your charms for a day or so.

You said we would have a moral obligation to go in on the ground.



When i questioned that, you said we would incure the obligation if we declared war in order to enforce a no-fly zone.



I pointed out that we would not need to declare war in order to do that, and now you're saying if we "join the war," rather than saying if we declare war, or if we "invade." You're trimming your sails to suit the wind, and that is intellectual dishonesty. As i have pointed out repeatedly, we don't have to declare war to do this, and i reject your silly claim that enforcing a no-fly zone constitutes an invasion, which would oblige us "morally."

At least, there's no US aircraft carrier at the moment there: the USS Enterprise, which in recent weeks was stationed in the Red Sea, has been moved eastwards, away from Libya, to join the USS Carl Vinson, in the Arabian Sea to support Afghanistan operations.
However, the U.S. Navy has five combat ships in the Mediterranean, including at least one guided missile destroyer.

France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is in Toulon. (The carrier could reach the Libyan coast in one and a half days carrying 15 fighter jets. Its battle group includes three frigates, a fuel-supply ship and an attack submarine.)

Sources: Reuters, AFP; various ship trackers.

Thanks, Walter, that's the kind of information i was looking for. I wasn't finding it search Google News or Yahoo News.

How many more days will it take before the freedom fighters in Libya gets any support?

My point is not and never has been that we are legally required to make a formal declaration of war. My point is that I consider it to be an act of war, and that such acts should be considered very carefully.



Liar. You keep putting these claims about legal obligations in my mouth. It's pathetic.



No, you are simply making up positions and ascribing them to me. At no point did I ever say a formal declaration of war was necessary.



And we didn't have to declare war to start the Vietnam war either, but it was still a war. I never made any claim about needing to declare war formally.



Duly noted. If you have any arguments that actually address my position about ownership of responsibility when we elect to no longer be a neutral party then I would love to hear it. To try (probably fruitlessly) to prevent you from making more of your famous straw men, here it is very clearly for you again:

I believe that when nations decide to use military force to intervene in another nation that they gain some responsibility for the outcome of the situation. I don't believe any such legal obligation exists (at least not that general of one) just that if we help them break their country that we should help them fix it, but that if we stay out of it we are justified in refusing to help them fix it.

What I would like to avoid is a repeat of history where we encourage rebels, make a no-fly zone but don't do enough to prevent them from being crushed anyway. My position is that if we encourage these rebels to fight we need to protect them, and if the no-fly zone wasn't enough we should be willing to do more.

If you have an argument against that, which is my actual position then have at it. Try to keep your deceitful straw men to a minimum.

which "freedom fighters" would you be referring to?

I quoted your post about declaring war above, and you're back to your schoolyard technique of calling names. You truly are pathetic. Grow up, boy.

Freedom from Gaddafi. I had to explain that?

so Castro was a freedom fighter I suppose.

I believe it would not be inaccurate to say that he saw himself, or at least attempted to portray himself that way. Mileage will differ.

As was the Afghan resistance movement aka Taliban.

Who's talking about Cuba; the topic of this thread is "Arab League." You're an idiot trying to start an argument for no reason. Why don't you go beat your girl friend.

Jesus Christ . . . can we dispense with the name-calling and personal reflections?

No. You don't control me.

I haven't claimed to. This thread is getting trashed by name-calling, and i didn't try to tell you anything. I'm asking.

You can "ask" the likes of dys to stay on topic. He only tries to get my crawl, but I've never ran away from scum like him, and never will.

Apparently, though, asking for you not to call names was a wasted effort. Thanks a lot.

Set, You're known as a total gentleman on a2k. ROFLMAO