Cameron deserves credit over Libya

By Sunder Katwala / @nextleft

David Cameron and his government deserve credit today for having worked hard to play a constructive role – alongside France, Arab League nations and others – to eventually push the United Nations process to agree a no fly zone in Libya.

The British government was previously criticised for its shaky response to the Libyan crisis, and with a good deal of cause given blunders over the evacuation of British citizens, and some rather mixed messages in the region more generally. But the British and French have shown that they can have an influential and, in this case, decisive role at the United Nations given how ambivalent the US administration has been over what, if any, further international response was demanded by the unfolding crisis in Libya.

So Cameron deserves tripartisan support for the British government’s broad approach and I expect that he can broadly expect to receive it. There are certainly some pessimistic realist voices, particularly on the Conservative right (continuing an ages old debate, as Brendan Simms anatomises), and there will be a section of opinion around Tony Benn on the left and of broadly pacifist instincts who are worred about perceptions of ‘western imperialism’. But the broad centre around the Responsbility to Protect ought to have a wide range across the spectrum on this occasion.

That will include a strong proportion of those on the liberal left who opposed the Iraq war, but who will rightly see this case – with an imminent crisis rather than a pre-emptive claim, two clear Security Council resolutions to authorise action, and backing from regional powers such as the Arab League – as having quite distinct features, which need to be judged on their own merits. Those are the reasons why much Liberal Democrat opinion will also be instinctively supportive of the government’s position, whether they were in the Coalition government or not.

Despite the possibility of a broad consensus, the UN decision means accepting many risks. The diplomatic response may well have come too late. The moving response in the streets of Benghazi to the UN decision could simply prove a prelude to tragedy: the celebrations of those who hoped to be assisted by an international community which is rather anxious about whether it can in fact practically assist.

There are important questions about whether a no fly zone will prove effective against Libyan resistance, and whether it will prove insufficient as the dictatorship moves to suppress an uprising by other means. If it does not work, there will be no shortage of Monday night quarterbacks to point out why it was folly to think that it ever could.

Nor should anybody have any relish about the prospect of military action. Yet the alternative to the UN resolution would be an acceptance that governments can kill their own citizens with impunity – with barely even a word of protest, still less any effort to prevent this – whatever the cost to human rights, and to broader regional peace and security.

A longer version version of this post can be seen at Next Left.