Rick Perry calls for a no-fly zone over Syria, and he floated that idea again in tonight’s debate. He either doesn’t understand — or he won’t admit — that a no-fly zone vs. Syria is the same as war against Syria.
Michael Knights, probably the expert on no-fly zones, told me during the Libya debate that a no-fly “is basically an act of war.” Knights argued that a no-fly zone was appropriate after a war, as in Iraq after the first Gulf War, or as the run-up to war.
I wrote, regarding a proposed no-fly zone over Libya:
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates seems to agree. “A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses.” This would include – as Kerry put it on CBS on Sunday – “cratering their runways” to ground their jets. “An attack on Libya,” as Gates puts it, which would mean dropping bombs or shooting rockets, is pretty hard to distinguish from war.
There’s no logic behind simply stopping Gadhafi’s jets. AP quoted reports Wednesday that Libyan tanks are firing “randomly” on homes in Zawiyah. Gadhafi also has artillery – plenty of it. There’s no coherent justification for the U.S. military shutting down Gadhafi’s jets but not his howitzers and tanks. If we do no-fly, we also have to do no-tank and no-cannons. You see how things start to get sticky.
Americans could take out Libyan tanks and cannons from the air, but can pilots really tell the difference between a tank driven by a soldier still loyal to Gadhafi and one driven by a rebel soldier? U.S. pilots could easily confuse farmers’ tractors for mortars.
And does anyone doubt that Gadhafi is evil enough to put anti-aircraft weapons on the back of a school bus or the roof of a mosque. So do American pilots bomb a mosque or risk getting their jets shot down? War often involves terrible choices like that – which is one reason it’s good to stay out of war when you can.
There’s no logic behind simply stopping Gadhafi’s jets. AP quoted reports Wednesday that Libyan tanks are firing “randomly” on homes in Zawiyah. Gadhafi also has artillery – plenty of it. There’s no coherent justification for the U.S. military shutting down Gadhafi’s jets but not his howitzers and tanks. If we do no-fly, we also have to do no-tank and no-cannons. You see how things start to get sticky.
Americans could take out Libyan tanks and cannons from the air, but can pilots really tell the difference between a tank driven by a soldier still loyal to Gadhafi and one driven by a rebel soldier? U.S. pilots could easily confuse farmers’ tractors for mortars.
And does anyone doubt that Gadhafi is evil enough to put anti-aircraft weapons on the back of a school bus or the roof of a mosque. So do American pilots bomb a mosque or risk getting their jets shot down? War often involves terrible choices like that – which is one reason it’s good to stay out of war when you can.
