Should The UN Deploy Peace Keeping Troops To Libya

Some commentators have drawn a parallel to Libya of the situation in Bosnia and later Kosovo in the 90's. There are similarities: an autocratic leader slaughtering his own people, use of the armed forces to carry out these atrocities, potential for the crisis to affect other states in the region.
There are however major differences. Firstly the Gaddafi regime doesn't have the kind of popular support that Milosovic enjoyed. Every day that passes sees his power base crumble still further as diplomats defect, the armed services switch to the side of the rebels, and more and more towns and cities become stable under opposition control.
Gaddafi now has a firm hold over only parts of Tripoli. Certainly he still has the support of a substantial part of his military, but as the crisis progresses there will be more defections, which will act as a vicious circle of waning support for the regime.
The deployment of foreign troops onto Libyan soil would likely make the situation worse, vindicating Gaddafi and his statements on the intents of foreign parties. This would without doubt stabilise the tyrants support at least.
Worse still military intervention could force the Gaddafi regime into deploying chemical weapons against his own people, or the peacekeeping troops.
Of course, if he does possess these weapons there is a risk that Gaddafi would use these weapons even without UN intervention - but as we saw with Libyan pilots flying to Malta, or ejecting instead of carrying out bombings against civilians, giving an order does not mean it will be executed. If Gaddafi did order his military to commit genocide I believe it would be the final straw in his own demise.
The UN must prepare and make itself ready, and do so quickly - Gaddafi is nothing if not unpredictable - but for now it must be calm and patient, and give this abominable regime a chance to destroy itself.

The UN's Responsibility in Libya

Yesterday the Libyan Air Force started to bomb unarmed civilians using Mirage jet-fighters. The entire Libyan delegation to the UN resigned in protest, diplomats in China and India soon followed. Two Air Force Colonels had the courage to defy their orders and fly their planes to Malta, where one has applied for asylum. 

The troubling thing is that many of the pilots either did not have a problem with bombing their own defenseless people, or were too afraid of the consequences if they disobeyed. Whereas in Egypt we saw the armed forces actively protecting protesters in Tahrir Square, in Libya they are murdering them. 

The White House has said it is "very concerned" about the situation in Libya. Ban Ki-Moon censured the "very disturbing and shocking scenes". Sarkozy has said that it is an "unacceptable use of force" and asks for a political solution. Similarly British Prime Minister David Cameron has voiced his disapproval. China and Russia seem principally concerned about their citizens in Libya - with Russia sending planes in to help evacuate it's people. 

The UN Security Council is meeting this morning to decide what course of action to take. Ibrahim al-Dabashi, Libya's Deputy Ambassador to the UN has already asked for a No Fly Zone to be set up over Libya.  

This needs to be done today. Assuming the Russians and the Chinese can be persuaded not to veto a resolution (the Russians have after all just agreed a $1.8 billion arms deal with Gadaffi's regime) then the US, France and Britain all have aircraft within an hour of Libya. 

It is true that there are other genocides occurring right now, which perhaps deserve as much attention as what is happening in Libya, but the fact that these attacks by the Libyan Air Force are so flagrant, so incontrovertible and potentially so easily stopped means that we really do not have any cause for delay. The UN needs to stand up and perform the job for which it was created.