The real measure of interventionist policy is the long-term result and the big picture.

[LadyLeigh]

As tempting as perspectives such as "We saved lives in Bengazi. People are celebrating in the streets. Yay." may be, as useless are they when evaluating the wisdom behind an interventionist policy. When discussing policies, one can never just look at one piece of the puzzle, one always has to consider the entire picture as well.

I think it is safe to say that the NATO intervention, in the way it was handled, escalated the conflict in Libya to a much larger scale than the initial one, and caused a great amount of death and destruction. If one wants to cast the whole adventure in a positive light, then what follows now must be a fulfillment of the promise of a "greater good".

What ever happens to the country now must be measured against the costs, the human toll specifically. A principled debate as to how many lives freedom or what ever level prosperity was obtained is worth is inevitable. And the burden of proof still lies with the interventionists.