For myself, I’d split the difference and say the ideal scenario would have been for the Egyptian military to enter Libya and take out Gaddafi as the Vietnamese did to remove Pol Pot. But of course, this would mean that the Arabs would be masters of their own destiny, and that simply cannot be allowed. ~Jack Ross

If the Egyptian army invaded Libya, they would not be doing it as “masters of their own destiny” but because they had been told that this was the price of continued subsidies from Washington. To the extent that the military rulers of Egypt are actually setting Egyptian policy on their own, they are against any direct military intervention in Libya, and they have good reasons. This is because they properly worry about the fate of Egyptians still in Libya, and because they are not so foolish as to think that being drawn into a neighboring country’s civil war will work to their advantage. This would only be an ideal scenario if we weren’t talking about what would be best for Egypt and Libya. Ideal or not, this scenario isn’t happening, since the Egyptian military has rather more pressing problems and doesn’t need to be launching an unprovoked invasion of a neighbor. I can also think of few worse things for the political chances of Egyptian liberals than for Egypt to sink its resources and energy into settling the Libyan civil war.

I can’t account for why some otherwise sensible people would support this Libyan foolishness, but I can tell you why Al Jazeera is all for it: it is doing what it is told. Qatar has committed a few planes to the effort, and the GCC has endorsed the mission, so Al Jazeera dutifully provides approving coverage of the war that its overseers have urged Western governments to start.