The overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi has been messy and is likely to get more so. For those used to watching armoured columns streaming in triumphant order across the desert to depose a dictator and pull down his statues, it doesn't look very impressive.

1. Seek4media:
The
Overthrow
of
Gaddafi
Has
Been
Messy
and
Is
Likely
to
Get
Worse
The
overthrow
of
Muammar
Gaddafi
has
been
messy
and
is
likely
to
get
more
so.
For
those
used
to
watching
armoured
columns
streaming
in
triumphant
order
across
the
desert
to
depose
a
dictator
and
pull
down
his
statues,
it
doesn't
look
very
impressive.
But
this
is
what
the
future
probably
looks
like.
Better
get
used
to
it.
Like
it
or
not,
the
ramshackle
rebel
army
is,
with
the
support
of
the
Nato-­‐based
coalition,
creating
a
new
way
of
intervening
and
giving
strength
to
a
new
strand
of
international
law.
Farewell
Gladstonian
liberal
intervention
with
its
gunboats;
hello
people's
liberal
intervention
with
its
Ray-­‐Bans,
T-­‐shirts
and
hastily
converted
pick-­‐
ups.
Of
course,
Libya
isn't
over
yet.
The
last
days
of
Gaddafi
could
be
just
as
messy
as
the
long
days
that
led
to
his
downfall.
He
is
more
than
mad
enough
and
self-­‐declared
martyr
enough
to
do
something
foolish
at
the
end.
But
even
if
the
battle
ends
soon
and
cleanly,
the
peace
that
follows
is
likely
to
be
just
as
confused
and
chaotic
as
the
conflict.
How
could
it
be
otherwise?
We
have
intervened
to
prevent
a
massacre
and
let
the
Libyan
people
shape
their
own
peace,
rather
than
to
seek
to
impose
ours
something
which,
by
the
way,
we
ourselves
weren't
very
good
at.
So,
as
we
watch
the
National
Transitional
Council
struggle
to
build
a
government
(security
should
be
its
first
priority),
it
would
be
in
order
to
remember
with
humility
that
when
we
tried
to
do
the
same
thing
in
Baghdad
we
didn't
exactly
make
a
roaring
success
of
it
or
in
Kabul
either.
Or,
indeed,
in
many
places
where
we
have
tried
to
create
a
Western
peace
after
a
foreign
conflict.
We
should
now
do
all
that
we
can
to
help
the
rebels
to
bring
about
order
and
government
in
Libya.
But
we
will
need
to
do
so
with
understanding
and
patience.
Better
for
the
mistakes
that
will
inevitably
be
made
to
be
local
ones,
rather
than
our
mistakes
that
they
have
to
pay
for,
as
in
Iraq
and
Afghanistan.

2. In
1997,
before
the
Kosovo
war
started,
I
was
in
the
little
Albanian
villages
south
of
Pristina
being
bombarded
by
the
main
battle
units
of
the
Serb
Army.
The
following
day
I
met
one
of
the
Serb
artillery
commanders
and
found
that
he
was
more
worried
about
being
indicted
by
what
was
then
the
infant
Yugoslav
war
crimes
tribunal
than
he
was
of
Nato's
bombs.
The
point
about
law
is
that
it
exists
not
just
to
deliver
justice
after
the
event
but
also
to
govern
behaviour
beforehand.
After
Kosovo,
the
world
summit
of
2005
gave
form
to
a
new
international
legal
concept:
the
responsibility
to
protect
(R2P
for
short).
This
asserted
that,
under
international
law,
there
ought
to
be
an
obligation
(note
"ought"
and
"obligation")
on
a
government
to
protect
its
people,
not
abuse
them.
Many
of
us
thought
R2P
would
never
be
more
than
a
piece
of
well-­‐meaning
rhetoric.
But
Libya
has
given
R2P
both
form
and
precedent.
How
R2P
is
carried
forward
post
Libya
will
also
not
be
smooth
or
free
of
contradictions.
R2P
will
be
applied
with
force
in
places
where
it
can
be
Libya
for
example;
but
not
be
so
applied
in
others,
where
it
can't
be
Syria
probably.
But
then
this
was
true
of
classic
liberal
interventionism
too.
International
law
does
not
spring
from
a
single
pen
or
a
single
piece
of
paper;
it
evolves
over
time
confusingly,
inelegantly
and
often
in
contradictory
fashion.
Libya
has
placed
us
slap-­‐bang
in
the
middle
of
that
messy
process.
Many
of
us,
me
included,
feared
that,
after
the
Iraq
debacle,
the
multilateral
system
might
never
be
able
to
be
used
again
for
good
ends.
But
it
has
been
and
triumphantly.
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the
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and
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globe.
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approach
and
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