Why a no-fly zone means no freedom for Libyans

This article was published in Spiked Oline 15 March 2011

Those looking to the West to intervene against Gaddafi degrade the name of internationalism and deny Libyans the right to control their fate.

While world leaders tussle over how best to intervene in the Libyan conflict, the Arab League of rulers has now called on world leaders to impose a ‘humanitarian-based’ no-fly zone, in a desperate attempt by the region’s remaining authoritarian regimes to show that they are on the side of the people. The irony of the Saudis claiming to support action against Gaddafi while sending in troops to help the Bahraini royals put down protests should not have escaped even the G8. Yet the Arab League’s stance has boosted those Western leaders, such as British premier David Cameron and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who are banging the drum for a no-fly zone, hoping it could air-lift them onto the moral high ground at little risk.

Let us cut out the pious crap and be clear about what these demands for a Western no-fly zone over Libya represent. However it is dressed up as a humanitarian mission to protect the Libyan people from Gaddafi’s repression, and however token Cameron might imagine it could be, a no-fly zone would be an act of political and military intervention by foreign powers to shape the fate of Libya. That is anti-democratic in principle, taking the struggle for power out of the hands of the people themselves. History suggests it would also be a disaster in practice that could escalate and perpetuate a civil war. Western intervention by any other name will still risk imposing a no-freedom zone on the Libyans.