Libya Crisis

Libya Crisis

Introduction

In March and April of the year 2011, after a string of successful revolutions that took place in Egypt and Tunisia and the successful protests across the Middle East against different kinds of dictatorship, civilians in Libya also took to the streets to protest against the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and force him to step down. As a result, this event was followed by a brutal crack down by the Libyan government involving the Libyan police, their security forces and imported militia from Sudan and Chad, who violently attacked the peaceful protestors. This obviously was met with immediate condemnation by the global community. As the crisis continued with the Libyan government continuing the violence and killings and creating mayhem through the use of attack helicopters and fighter jets, the international community decided to call for action of some kind. The major proposal that they came up with, was to impose a 'no fly zone' over the country. This meant the use of foreign planes to endeavor to halt and disable the ability of Libyan jets and helicopters from flying so that the major threat of Libyan jets and helicopters that was posed on both the civilians and the Libyan rebels is eradicated. But there were serious debates and concern over this proposal. Some were worried that this proposal would require a large fleet of planes and resources and these planes then would be at a risk of being shot down. Some were concerned about the probability of mission creep, in which a no fly zone further becomes a larger mission that might involve active bombing campaigns or placing troops on the ground. But the people who supported this plan were of the view that since so many innocent people were being killed, imposing a no fly zone was simply the best idea morally, as well as strategically.

Although it did spur a lot of debate and concerns but then the Security Council took the historic decision and according to the Resolution 1973 the international community had the authority to fulfill its responsibility to provide protection to the civilians of Libya who were being killed and made the victims of violence by their own government. The resolution gave full authority to use all those measures that were necessary to stop the loss of further innocent lives and to prevent further damage. That included imposition of no fly zone over Libya as well. Of course in adapting to this resolution, the appeal of the League of the Arab states was considered as very important by the Security Council. (Chesterman, 2011, pp 3)

Discussion

Debate over the Imposition of No Fly Zone

As mentioned above, a number of reasons came up in the minds of people whether to move forward with this proposal or not and the topic became debatable. People, who agreed that the proposal to impose a no fly zone over Libya was a fair one, believed that the proposal would considerably be advantageous to the Libyan ...