U.S. wants other nations to pitch in on Libya

[cali]

By Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy, Wednesday, March 30, 11:41 PM

President Obama has touted his emphasis on multilateralism in the U.S. military intervention in Libya, but — for political, operational and legal reasons — his “coalition of the willing” is smaller than any major multilateral operation since the end of the Cold War.

The Cable compiled a list of the countries that contributed at least some military assets to the five major military operations in which the United States participated in a coalition during the past 20 years: the 1991 Persian Gulf War (32 countries participating), the 1995 Bosnia mission (24 countries), the 1999 Kosovo mission (19 countries), the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan (48 countries) and the 2003 invasion of Iraq (40 countries), at the height of the size of each coalition.

As of today, only 15 countries, including the United States, have committed to a military contribution to the war in Libya.

Experts quickly point out that all of these military interventions happened in different contexts. However, they added that the reason Obama’s Libya war coalition has less international involvement than all the others was also because of his administration’s behavior in the lead-up to the war, its approach to multilateralism, the speed at which it was put together, and the justifications for the war itself.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-wants-other-nations-to-pitch-in-on-libya/2011/03/30/AFh2IY6B_story.html