Get out of Libya

The United States of America has attacked a sovereign Middle Eastern nation without a formal declaration of War by Congress. This country poses no military threat to the United States and coincidentally holds large reserves of oil.

Sound familiar? And no, I’m not talking about Iraq.

The United States has no business conducting combat operations in Libya. It is true that the United Nations did declare a no-fly zone over Libya to stop Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi from using the Libyan Air Force to bomb protesters. But this no-fly zone was intended solely to keep the Libyan Air Force from operating.

However, both the United States and the NATO-backed military coalition have far exceeded the UN mandate by holding air strikes and cruise missile attacks against other Libyan military targets.

These military strikes are being conducted in order to aid rebel groups that are fighting to overthrow Gaddafi and his tyrannical regime. However, when the United States and NATO began supporting them, no one really had any idea who these rebel groups were or what were their long-term goals for Libya.

Strong evidence has now come to light that many of these groups are either supported by or directly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, yet our support for the groups has not wavered, because they oppose Gaddafi. 

At the same time, Libya does not pose a credible military threat to the United States or NATO, nor did it before we began these military operations. It is true that Gaddafi did sponsor terrorist organizations that plotted against the United States and Europe, but that was decades ago. In the 21st Century, Libya was simply incapable of conducting any sort of hostile action against the United States.

However, even if Libya somehow were a credible threat to the United States, we do not really have the ability to undertake prolonged combat against it. We are already fighting two wars in the Middle East, and our military and logistics networks are already stretched very thin. A third war would likely push them to the breaking point.

Compounding the problem is the state of our economy: The country is nearly broke. We simply do not have the money to enter into a war against Libya.

To reiterate: The United States of America should not be conducting military action against Libya. That country is simply not a threat to us, and even if it were, we have neither the manpower nor the money to fight it. We need to withdraw from combat operations against Libya and turn full control of the operation over to NATO as soon as possible.