Boy Wonder posturing on Libya

Sigh. Cameron claims to have taken the lead in imposing a "no-fly zone" over Libya. Which is to say persuading the Americans, who have the capability, to impose it while the Euro-weenies sit back and carp as usual. 

Like all his circle, he lacks the personality and experience to impose himself on officials, so he is simply toeing the Foreign Office line; which is to seem to do something while the EU is "considering holding a special summit on Libya". Oooh! That must have Muammar trembling in his slippers!

But let's suppose for a moment there were actually some substance - some willingness to act rather than strike poses - behind the policy advocated by the Boy Wonder. The rebels in Libya have some substantial air assets of their own and Khaddafi's pilots have been defecting rather than bomb their own people. So a no-fly zone might actually benefit the dictator.

British politicians and officials have a sickening record in the matter of interfering in other people's civil wars. From craven non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War to Britain's "Unfinest Hour", the contemptible reprise of the same policy in Bosnia, whatever the Foreign Office proposes in these matters can be guaranteed to show perfide Albion at its worst.