Although I wish Gadhafi would go away and never hold power again in Libya, I do not want the U.S. to get involved militarily in the Libyan civil war. It has the potential for becoming another quagmire for the U.S. and could actually further damage our standing with the Arab world.
I was saddened to see that the U.S. is considering air strikes as a means of helping the rebels in Libya. I fear that this would draw us into a war that has pitfalls for us. It would be a mistake.
Like many Arab countries, politics in Libya is complex. There are tribal and sectarian loyalties. There is no clear "opposition figure" that everyone there rallies around (and who is favorable to the West). The rebels are poorly armed and poorly organized. Gadhafi's forces seem to be on the offense now and seem to be poised to take back the majority of the country. There is no vision for a post Gadhafi Libya economically or politically.
I fear that the knee-jerk reaction of "help the rebels...oust the dictator" will result in the same ad hoc, poorly planned policies that brought us the Decade Long Iraq war. If we strike Gadhafi's troops, inevitably civilians will be killed too. Those pictures on Arab Television, over time, will help to turn us from helpers into invaders....just like happened in Iraq.
What should we do? Possibly blockade Libya, organize international efforts to supply the people with food and medicine, etc. Whatever we do, don't get militarily involved!
UPDATE 2: Today's New York Times argues against military involvement, or even a No Fly Zone:
The point, to be clear, isn’t that the rebels are likely to be “worse than Qaddafi” — though given how few problems the Libyan dictator has given the West in the last decade or so, it isn’t that hard to imagine a replacement regime proving itself more dangerous and destabilizing. It’s that Qaddafi’s victory, while undesirable and horrible in many ways, might well be preferable to an open-ended American commitment to prop Republic of East Libya at a time when the world is filled with more strategically-significant trouble spots, and America’s list of pre-existing commitments runs long.