What's Next In Libya? Pick Your War

In Bosnia, Iraq (second Gulf War), and Afghanistan, a short, sharp air campaign facilitated toppling the regime–but in each case ground troops followed up.

In Afghanistan, the troops were local, but they failed to hold the gains–and regular troops had to follow.

In Kosovo, it took a long protracted air campaign–and then you still needed troops.

FYI the only thing the UN security council does “not” authorize is occupation troops.

In every case from Bosnia to Iraq, extremists tried to flood the zone after the conflict and take advantage of the chaos. Will this time be different?

While regime change is not the goal of the air campaign–some hope it comes to that, but that was what we tried in Gulf War I and that did not work so well. We had to keep the no-fly zone in place for a long time-and then we ended up invading anyway.

So I am looking for the “easy button” historical analogy here and I am not seeing it.

All of which suggests the US needs a long-term plan after we conquer the skies of Libya.