With Gaddafi digging in, many have called for international intervention in Libya. Thus far, the focus has been on regime change, with proposals ranging from military assistance to the rebels to no-fly zones over the country, and even to attacks against the regime’s military forces. These proposals would almost surely be viewed as an effort at Western domination of an oil-rich Muslim country -- solidifying support for Gaddafi in Libya and inspiring anti-Western terrorism by al-Qaeda and others outside it.

Indeed, the focus on regime change takes our eyes off the crucial problem that the world community can and should seek to avoid -- an exploding humanitarian crisis in Libya on the scale witnessed in Somalia, the Balkans and the Kurdish areas of Iraq in the 1990s.

... America does not have a vital stake in the outcome of this contest and intervention now, even for humanitarian goals, has the potential for an open-ended, costly commitment. Instead, we should pursue a more cautious approach in the west [of Libya]. [my emphasis]

Libya is already a failed state. Large parts of the government and military have disintegrated. Gaddafi is now simply the largest warlord in a country where unity will be difficult to regain, even under the best of circumstances. As a result, the nature of the humanitarian challenge is different in the eastern and western parts of Libya. [my emphasis]