JK has a piece on UN/US involvement in Libya in today's WSJ

[Luftmensch067]

I've been at a loss as to how to share it because they make you pay to read more than the beginning. I was able to get the whole text via a paid library subscription and would be happy to send it to anyone, just PM me.

Probably the best way to share it here would be to pick out a small selection of quotes, though you really need to read the whole thing to get it in context:

Libya and The Just Use Of American Force
John Kerry. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Mar 26, 2011. pg. A.15

Make no mistake, neither the U.N. nor any nation should be drawn into military intervention lightly. But there were legitimate reasons for establishing a no-fly zone over Libya and forcing Gadhafi to keep his most potent weapons out of the fight. If you slice through the fog of misinformation and weigh the risks and benefits alongside our values and interests, the justification is clear and compelling.

What is happening in the Middle East could be the most important geostrategic shift since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Absent U.N./NATO resolve, the promise that the pro-democracy movement holds for transforming the Arab world could have been crushed.

<snip>

The military intervention in Libya sends a critical signal to other leaders in the region: They cannot automatically assume they can resort to large-scale violence to put down legitimate demands for reform without consequences. U.N. resolve in Libya can have an impact on future calculations.

<snip>

Every potential conflict is unique, and there is no simple formula for when to weigh in with force. It is fair to ask, why Libya and not other humanitarian situations? The truth is that we must weigh our ideals, our interests and our capabilities in each case when deciding where to become involved.