On Intervention in Libya: A Reply to Norm Geras

On Intervention in Libya: A Reply to Norm Geras

Michael Walzer on Intervention in Libya: A Reply to Norm Geras

Yesterday, Norm Geras critiqued Michael Walzer?s post on Libya, ?From Subject to Citizen.? Walzer responds here.

When thinking about life and death decisions, I am inclined to worry about my own positions?and even to doubt them. Assume that we are all Millians: would we be ready to watch the killing that would follow a Qaddafi victory? (Did Mill himself ever have to contemplate anything like that?) The killing would be partisan, not genocidal, but there would be a lot of it, and it would be accompanied by imprisonment and torture on a large scale. So we need to begin now to argue about what we would want to happen then.

Maybe, at some point short of that, or just short of it, we would want to see a military intervention that denied Qaddafi his victory. Maybe not, but let?s think clearly about what ?not? would mean. And if we were to decide in favor of a last minute intervention, the prime candidates to carry it out, it seems to me, are the Egyptian and Tunisian armies. Not the United States or NATO, bringing civilization and democracy to the natives, but an Arab force determined to prevent or stop the killing of Arabs. For many years, Arab political leaders have called privately for Western interventions, which they then denounced. Now that time is over, or should be, and the Libyan crisis may be the right occasion to announce its end.

Meanwhile, there is a lot we can do, and should do, to help the Libyan opposition win on its own.