Libya And The Question Of Intervention

The challenge in Libya, Arab revolt, and what comes next.

Pity the rebels of Libya.  They’ve paid a steep price in blood already.  Protestors and civilians, mowed down in Tripoli and beyond.  They’re up against the arm-waving Muammar Qaddafi, who seems deeply out of touch and quite willing to deploy every weapon he’s got against his own people.

This is not a jasmine revolution.  It’s ugly, desperate, and now, stumbling under the weight of tanks, artillery, and fighter jets.

Should the world, the United States, intervene?  Would that end the magic of the Arab wave?

This hour On Point, the struggle in Libya, and what to do – or not to do.
- Tom Ashbrook
Guests:

Lisa Anderson, president of the American University in Cairo, Egypt. She's author of "The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1990."

Dirk Vandewalle, associate professor of government at Dartmouth.  He's author of "A History of Modern Libya."

Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2001 to 2003, he was director of policy planning for the Department of State, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell. He was also special assistant to President George H. W. Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council.