Why isn't the Arab League taking care of Libya on their own?

[Hugabear]

They don't need the US or NATO to do their bidding. They're more than capable of handling Libya on their own. That is, if they truly wanted to.

Instead, it's far simpler for them to say they want to stop Gadhaffi from crushing the rebellion, as long as someone else does the majority of the dirty work.

[readmoreoften]

1. I support the Arab league going in.

[joshcryer]

4. They are.

[Hugabear]

9. Fine. Then let them do it by themselves.

As I said in my OP, they're more than capable of doing this completely by themselves. They don't need American, British, French, or Italian help doing so.

[Rage for Order]

2. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

I think that old adage pretty much sums it up

[Recovered Repug]

3. This is a list of the members of the Arab League.

http://www.arab.de/arabinfo/league.htm

How many (with the possible exception of Tunisia and Egypt) do you think would REALLY support a countries citizens overthrowing an unelected leader?

[Hugabear]

6. Exactly

They can SAY they want to help the rebels all they want. But if they really wanted it done, they could do it themselves. This is just a way they can appear to be supportive without losing face with their own people, many of whom would not look kindly upon Western intervention against a fellow Arab country.

[Recovered Repug]

15. All true. The point that I was trying to make was

that many (most?) of the Arab League are headed up by unelected leaders/dictators. None of them may like or really care what happens to Qaddafi, however I don't think too many would really want the citizens to succeed either. That might give their own people ideas or strengthen their efforts.

[Hugabear]

18. They're in the process of crushing their own rebellions

See Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia.

If Syrians started to rise up, they'd be crushed just as brutally.

[joshcryer]

5. Uh. They were the ones who went to the UN. People are so out of touch about Libya...

...and want to feign outrage over something they don't know.

[Rage for Order]

7. Please start a thread in GD when the first Arab League air sorties take to the skies over Libya

I'll be interested in seeing that. I won't dismiss it out of hand, but I am highly skeptical

[Hugabear]

10. If they do, it will be after American and French forces make it safe for them

In other words, they might offer a few token sorties, but not until AFTER all the dirty work has been done. That's assuming they do so at all.

[Turborama]

22. Why GD? LBN is where most of the news goes.

You should check it out.

[Rage for Order]

11. OP asked why the Arab League isn't taking care of Libya by themselves

Asking the UN to handle the problem for you does not constitute taking care of the problem yourself.

[joshcryer]

20. Oh so you think the Arab League can act unilaterally?

[tabatha]

16. Agreed -

there are a bunch of negative clueless comments about Libya.

Wish people would rather not waste their time posting nonsense, but go and watch Al Jazeera and learn something.

[sudopod]

8. There's likely some purely military considerations that would make it hard

for them to go it alone. They are mostly armed with our previous generation fighers and missiles. They would make short work of the Libyan air force, but the government invested pretty heavily in SAMS, and those SAMs would reap a pretty heavy toll on them. Our shiny new stuff won't be so vulnerable.

It better not be, anyway, considering how much we pay for it. :(

[Marr]

12. You're thinking of the Justice League.

(I'm sorry, I can't help it.)

[Hugabear]

14. The Justice League is more likely to take action than the Arab League

Just sayin'

[sabrina 1]

25. The Arab League is mostly countries still under the rule of

Western backed dictators.

Egypt and Tunisia so far are the only countries that succeeded in ousting their Western Backed dictators. Both countries are helping the Libyan people.

This is really a silly question. I don't know what you are implying, but if the Arab League countries were run by the people, THEN there would not be a need for the West to interfere.

The West supports these dictators, they supported Qadaffi, Ben Ali and Mubarak also.

Our foreign policies of always supporting dictators, while ousting democratically elected leaders like Aristede, Chavez and the latest coup in Honduras have been taking a real hit.

Now, the West led by the U.S. appears to be rethinking its blind support of Qadaffi and other dictators. The winds of change blowing in the region is threatening U.S. 'Interests' there. This is new, so what should they do?

No one trusts the U.S. and its own brutal military machine. So, they pressured the Arab League leaders to go to the U.N. so it wouldn't look like another Iraq-type invasion of an oil rich country.

But the U.S. has interests in Libya so it was inevitable, if the revolution failed, or dragged on that the U.S. would protect its interests there. So, they called on their friends in the Arab League to cover for them.

I hope the revolutionaries succeed in keeping the West out of their country.

They need help, there is no doubt about that, but many people are very concerned about that need. It has provided an opening for Western nations to protect their oil and other business interests in the country.

[Alamuti Lotus]

13. well, the "Arab League" is a tool of US/Saudi imperialism

most of them are a little busy at the moment doing the same things Qadhdhafi is, only with the support of the empire. Yes, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Bahrain should immediately step forward and show Qadhdhafi the proper way to shoot a crowd. This argument keeps coming up, it's just getting ridiculous.

But don't worry, the Saudis are involved already. Several factions of the "revolutionaries" (wolves in ... wolves clothing) have been quietly co-opted by US/Saudi forces and will betray the Libyan peoples' interests in their favor as any "color revolution" force can be expected to do (for example, the recent Wikileaks docs reported by Lebanese paper al-Akbar are just astounding in this regard). Libyan militants are faced with the greatly unenviable position of battling a ruthless tyrant AND a US/Saudi "fifth column" within their own self-styled leadership.

For a true revolutionary outcome, it is best that this reactionary club of "good old boy" imperialist lackeys, tyrants and kings have as LITTLE say in affairs as possible, at least until the international revolutionary current reaches all of their capitals.

[tabatha]

17. And then the Libyan revolution will be no more.

Wiped out never to happen again.

[Alamuti Lotus]

19. with foreign intervention now, it basically already is

[Turborama]

21. Qatar, Emirates to join Libya air strikes: diplomat

(AFP) – 7 hours ago

NEW YORK — Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will join international forces set to bomb Moamer Khadhafi's forces in Libya after the UN votes to authorize air strikes, a UN diplomat said Thursday.

"There will be participation by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. That has been confirmed at the Security Council," the diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said just ahead of the council's vote on authorizing force.

Thursday, the head of the Arab League delegation to the UN, Yahya Mahmassani, said the two countries might take part in raids, but that he could not confirm this.

Earlier, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said "there are excellent reasons to think that there will be participation by Arab countries."

Full article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jvjc1tzgd-Y1rsPc8UYK94jGNRkg?docId=CNG.ec8adac15de3a8c766bb1f548b5c44b7.ab1

[Turborama]

23. How about reading the actual resolution?

It specifically makes a request for their cooperation in implementing paragraph 4 (getting involved with doing the "dirty work"): http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x677397

2 Arab states have already said they will, see my reply upthread.

[Turborama]

24. Egypt is already arming the rebels.

Maybe you should arm yourself with the facts? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4776037