Unskilled and Unaware of It

[james_davis_nicoll]

Michael Ignatieff: idiot.

Although I did get a great idea for a movie in which he and Conrad Black are shackled together and must cooperate in their escape from search gangs and hound dogs.

Comments

[peter-erwin.livejournal.com]

No, the Libyan operations were (nominally, at least), authorized by the Security Council (Resolution 1973 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/17/un-security-council-resolution)); the fact that military operations were run by NATO isn't relevant[*].

A better analogy is Kosovo in 1999, where any Security Council action was blocked by Russian and China, for reasons similar to the Syrian situation (i.e., Milosevic was doing things in Kosovo similar to what Russia had done in Chechnya, and what China would want to do if the Uighurs or Tibetans ever tried a serious uprising).

[*] Strictly speaking, it was a subset of NATO countries, plus Qatar, the UAE, and Sweden, not the whole alliance itself (e.g., German forces did not take part), and the initial military actions were under an ad-hoc French/British/US leadership, not NATO itself.

[(Anonymous)]

The German air force ran combat missions in Kosovo. In fact, their Tornados were in the first wave of attacks against Serb air defenses. It's widely but incorrectly believed that they stayed out of Kosovo, mostly for reasons of German pacifist sensibilities.

Best,

Noel Maurer

[peter-erwin.livejournal.com]

Sure -- I was referring to Germany staying out of the Libyan operation last year, in consonance with their abstention from the Security Council vote. (Although I think they shifted some additional personnel and/or equipment to Afghanistan, to lighten the burden on other NATO countries, so they provided a bit of indirect support.)

[(Anonymous)]

(Rereads what you wrote.) That's right --- you were referring to Libya. My apologies! I've run into people who were /sure/ that the Germans didn't fight in Kosovo so often that I think I'm beginning to see the claim everywhere.