Do you remember the legendary Sirens? Perhaps you read about them in high school. In Greek mythology, these strange monsters would lure sailors to their deaths by singing them into distraction, so that their ships would sink. The Sirens tried just that with the adventurer Odysseus, but he outwitted them by telling his men to stuff their ears with wax, making them deaf to the Sirens’ song.
Some modern-day Sirens are out in force this week, urging the US and other Western countries to intervene in Libya. Some of them are using the Huffington Post as a platform for their song. Others are able to spread their message through the reporting of sympathetic European journalists. Perhaps YouTube videos are on the way as well.
To unwary political advisors and officials in London, Washington, Paris, Ottawa, etc., their song must sound sweet indeed – intervene with military force in Libya, and you can simultaneously bring down a dictator, liberate an enslaved people, promote democracy in the Arab nations and claim a glorious place in the world’s history for your troubles.
Heady stuff! Politically-speaking, a more seductive message cannot be imagined. The Sirens of Libya have already entranced France’s Nicholas Sarkozy into talking about “no fly” zones over Libya.
One could get so wrapped up in anticipating the praise that would follow Gadhafi’s overthrow that the dangers inherent in every military intervention, and the inevitable costs of such actions, would seem like trivial, even inconsequential matters.
But the dangers, as Washington Examiner columnists Timothy Carney and Gene Healy have written, are real. And the costs of intervention are real. The lives of American soldiers, sailors and airmen are not trivial things. Neither are possible civilian casualties.
Legend tells us that the Greek hero Orpheus, upon meeting the Sirens, neutralized the effects of their song by singing a song of his own. Western officials who are wavering under the influence of the Sirens of Libya should recall Orpheus’ example. Seductive as their song about intervention is, if our leaders have the will, it can be successfully resisted.
