One of the many reasons for avoiding foreign entanglements is their complexity. The complexity entangles. Choosing sides entangles. One specific instance in today’s news illustrates this. There are migrant workers in Libya who fled on a boat which overturned, killing perhaps as many as 300 passengers. Does this mean the U.S. should be in there bringing down Gaddafi? That means choosing Gaddafi’s opposition, but who are they and how do they behave? What makes them legitimate voices and actors for Libyans at large? A Cameroon passenger “…said he had been fleeing from harassment by opponents of the Gaddafi regime,” [my added emphasis].
“The war is too much,” he told reporters on the Italian island of Lampedusa. “They steal our property, steal our money every day. They try to threaten us to leave [Libya] or they will kill us. Or they give us guns to fight against Gaddafi. We were not able to face the fight.” By this acccount, Gaddafi’s opposition drove people out of Libya on the boat that subsequently capsized, killing a great many.
