Bloodbath in Libya offers no easy options for the West

Few in the Arab world today, unlike in Kosovo, for example, harbour many illusions about Western assistance. As for suggestions that the West somehow arm the rebels, isn’t that what happened with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan and which led to Taliban rule in the first place?

LIBYA, it appears, is in the midst of a full-on civil war. Colonel Gaddafi, unlike his Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts, isn’t giving up without a fight. Indeed, he seems prepared to do pretty much anything to stay in power.

The people of Libya have shown that nothing is truly permanent. They have exposed the utter isolation of his psychotic regime.