Libya and the Mission Creep I Hope For

There are serious arguments for and against military intervention in Libya.  Michael Walzer, who is often wise about such things, makes a strong case against. Yet, on balance I am convinced by Conor Foley’s minimalist position for intervention, presented at Crooked Timber. Colonel  Muammar el-Qaddafi’s decision to defend his power by any means necessary led Foley to conclude: “I think that the situation in Libya immediately prior to the intervention passed the threshold test … the UN is fulfilling its responsibility to protect the lives of civilians in this case.” Of course, there are many other situations where such intervention on these grounds should be called for, perhaps too many, but in Libya it became possible and has been immediately successful in the stated goal of reducing civilian deaths.

But there is also a greater hope that as their lives are being defended, Libyans will contribute to the democratic transformation of 2011. If Qaddafi would be defeated, a new democratic force may emerge, what Benoit Challand calls, “the counter-power of civil society.” My heart hopes it will be so. My head suggests extreme caution. Looking closely at the way the big political issues are enacted in everyday interactions, what I call “the politics of small things,” suggests why the caution is called for, but also where there may be hopeful signs.

There is a dilemma. For a successful democratic transition, the Libyans must develop a capacity to say more than no or yes to the dictator, as I put it while speculating about the Egyptians and when studying the Central Europeans. Yet, war generally doesn’t provide the time or place for this to happen. Opposition to the perceived evil source requires resolute action, disciplined unity of purpose. Democratic life is based upon diverse opinions and judgments and civil contestation. War generally does not support such civility and diversity. Significantly, Qaddafi’s regime worked against this throughout its history.

In politics the means are the ends. Leninist vanguard conspiracy was a successful way to oppose the Czarist autocracy, but the same vanguardism provided the infrastructure of the Soviet dictatorship. The mode of conspiracy became the mode of rule. With a history of conspiratorial resistance and with militant military action now as the possible mode of transformation in Libya, military rule seems likely.

Imams from the Al-Azhar University joined the protests. Coptic priests and Muslim clerics were seen protesting together in unity, Egypt, Jan. 30, 2011 © yamaha_gangsta | Creative Commons

Libya’s neighbors present a challenging contrast. In Egypt and Tunisia, we saw how the way the opposition was founded and acted led to the constitution of a new political power, revealed not only in the proclaimed commitment to principles, but as well in the way people acted. When members of the Muslim Brotherhood defended members of the Coptic Churches, and vice versa, the commitment to ideals of diversity were not only professed, but enacted, creating a significant force in Egyptian society. But even then, its fate is far from certain. Without that kind of personal experience, the Libyan opposition’s professed commitment to democracy is much less solid.

That said, there are possibilities, related to the power of 2011. It is possible that there will be a democratic domino effect. This is not an issue of magic, but of practical action. If the Tunisians and the Egyptians are successful, the Libyans after Qaddafi are more likely to be successful. Attractive models for action, easily understandable and acted upon, will be readily available. Such a dynamic clearly was at work in post Soviet East and Central Europe. Further, we actually don’t know exactly what is going on in Benghazi and elsewhere in liberated Libya off the center stage. Discipline in the military resistance is certainly necessary. But people with different worldviews and principles may be respectfully responsive to each other and acting together as they politically support the resistance. Reports suggest an ambiguous situation. But there clearly are those in the governing council who profess open views, with some signs that they may be laying the foundation for a democratic transformation.  It’s possible that the hopes for democracy are being knitted into the social fabric through such everyday interactions. From here in New York, that is a matter of speculative hope. In Libya, it’s a matter of practical action.