The `you break it, you bought it' observation also applies to anyone rushing in with a tube of glue... I'm somewhat wary of NFZs after watching Saddam play escalation games with the one in Iraq. The people may not have liked him any, but during the time it was in place he got to control the local narrative to build resentment towards his enemies. The defecting Libyans are not completely rag-tag either, many of them were in the Libyan military before this began.

Presuming for a minute that there was some sort of military intervention, unless it's designed to be limited in such a way as to not require an exit strategy, it seems to me that more than a single exit strategy would be required. Having a primary best case plan is fine, but not having a number of good alternate strategies seems like an unwise move. One of the things I've thought was a mistake in Iraq was not having credible strategies to address the situation if things didn't go the way everyone wanted. Worse, without being able to articulate those openly to both allies & opponents, they were able to form their own mangled narratives. Would it have helped if the people of Iraq knew at the outset that the price for supporting Al-Qaeda in Iraq was going to be awful, and that this would prolong the war unnecessarily? Perhaps... It's one thing to say 'this is our preferred outcome' quite another not to be able to articulate how we would act if things don't go according to script. Not doing that seems to me to be a mistake that's easily made.

I think providing the rebels with humanitarian support would be a good idea. I do think that we're on something of a death watch for Quaddafi, about all anyone is going to miss is his sartorial entertainment.

We don't know the calculus the forces under his control are making either, and that's difficult. They obviously think that rolling with Q is their best choice as long as they're not forced into some other option. A lot of history says as much too. Are they waiting on events with a leaden sense of duty until a reason they've been waiting for to flip sides comes along? We don't know, but I'm sure they're thinking about it.

I think there are a lot of potential things that could be done, but as long as there are huge piles of foreign nationals there & they're able to leave at varying rates, well everyone is going to be somewhat stuck. In essence that safe passage is already buying him a lot of time he might not otherwise enjoy. That only works until he starts to play nasty, but what then? It's not something that anyone wants to provoke him into doing.

It might be possible to make strategic strikes of various types, the idea of taking out his communications capacity is a good one. So is taking out his offensive air capacity. A NFZ wouldn't be so much needed if he's got nothing to fly that's weaponized. The idea of using some combination of sea / air power to degrade his capacity to inflict harm seems good, and it might well be one of the pushes some of his ostensibly loyal forces are looking for. We don't know that for sure though.

We aren't seeing the rebels plead for arms & ammunition yet, and from reading what people have written here about their internal supply situation it's easy to see why.

It may well be that the best strategy will be to help with humanitarian aid, and go all-in to make sure democracy succeeds in Tunisia and Egypt. Success for the people of those countries that outstrips the story of Iraq could go a very long way towards changing peoples ideas in the region. I find it interesting that in some of the countries where there's some discontent, but not complete discontent, the people have been agitating for solutions that disempower their various leaders in ways that don't create a lot of strife for everyone.

While there are varying amounts of pseudo-imperialist views driving some of the calls for the US to intervene, there's an awful lot to be said for not doing it too. The thing that comes to my mind the most is that it's empowering for people to understand better that their fate really is in their own hands. That was never not true, but far too much of the time people have grown used to the mistaken notion that somehow the US is the worlds police force. To go with that in circumstances that are less than ideal, like people everywhere, they get pissy when the police don't show up and do what they want them to do. The calls we hear for the US to "do something" are not calls to "do this", instead they're very similar to what people say when the cops show up in a conflict. They aren't sure what is to be done, but they want the conflict to end, and don't feel like they can end it themselves.

Also, at least personally, I'd like to see the US stay focused on Afghanistan. It's still a bigger mess with bigger stakes.