Dirk Vandewalle calls for another intervention in Libya:

What Libya needs instead is a European peacekeeping force that would shield the fledgling government from the various armed groups currently contesting its power, and one another, and allow it to rebuild state institutions.

Since it was a few European governments that were most eager to intervene in Libya three years ago, it would be somewhat fitting if they were the ones to take responsibility for the chaos that the original intervention caused, but we all understand that this isn’t going to happen. If there is no appetite for another occupation force in the U.S., there is likewise no desire anywhere in Europe to be policing Libya for the next decade. There never was, which was one of the many reasons why it was irresponsible and wrong to seek to topple the old regime. The current miserable state of Libya ought to tell us that Western governments should stop trying to “help” countries with military means. The last time that Western governments sought to “help” Libya, they wrecked the country. There is no reason to expect that a new intervention would be any less harmful.

Further, a Western military presence in Libya today would immediately become a target for jihadists and other insurgents. Instead of stabilizing the country and shoring up the government, such a “peacekeeping force” would be perceived as an occupying army to be attacked and driven out. Its support for the national government would likely undermine that government’s credibility with other Libyans. Such a mission would probably at best create a situation similar to Somalia, where the internationally-recognized government controls a small portion of the country and much of the country is dominated by hostile militias. This wouldn’t prevent or end the country’s woes, but would only commit outside forces to one side in the ongoing conflict.