Plumbers needed

Browsing a bit of Facebook today, I came across a remark from Attila the Stockbroker - fine poet and modern-day troubadour that he is - about the Libyan situation:

"Libya is what's on my mind, and whether you can be a 'rebel' if you are where you are because of NATO airstrikes.....or you are happy to take advantage of infidel backing before you declare your caliphate...." 

It's a fair point, though - is the legitimacy of the uprising in any way enhanced by the fact that it's been supported by Western airpower, and that, even with this mighty support, it's taken months to advance on Tripoli? Doesn't really support the line that the rebels enjoy massive support, not when you consider that Gadaffi's army wasn't entirely a first-rate fighting force in the first place, what with blockades and Libya having until recently been a bit of a pariah state and such.

Sadly, for me there's more than a whiff of Afghanistan (c.mid-80s)* about this whole thing - the support for an unknown quantity against a known "public enemy", the seeming refusal to analyse any sort of long-term implications or post-victory settlement, with a distinct absence of the sort of nation-building, reconciliation and development that is so sorely needed following such conflicts in order to make a successful transition to peace and democracy. It's alright, it seems, to give military support to the flavour of the month while it suits - who are we supporting, though?

Yesterday's heroic Mujaheddin can so quickly become today's vicious, bloodthirsty Taliban. You'd expect a little background checking in advance, then, wouldn't you? A cursory glance at their record and motives before they're tooled-up and sent off to overthrow the Colonel?

See - it's one thing to knock down the old shithouse, boys and girls - another entirely to plumb in a new toilet.... 

*Hmmm, just Afghanistan c.mid-80s? Could just as well apply, I suppose, to pretty much every Western military action east of the Balkans since (and including) Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf and Operation Desert Storm. And sadly, nothing seems to have changed.