Canada to send six CF-18s for Libya 'no-fly' mission

Huh. Can't say I really saw that coming. Good for us.

We also have a frigate in Maltese waters. Go figure, Canada through and is among the first.

Good on us!

See the UN can work, even if it probably took too long.

NATO air power vs. Moammar's collection of obsolete Soviet garbage? Ought to be over in about five hours. Or less. Hopefully they have orders to shoot down all his helicopters too in order to prevent a repeat of what happened to the Kurds and Shias in Iraq just after Desert Storm ended.

that would mean it doesn't work.

Many of Gadaffi's jets are obsolete French Mirages. The Armée de l'Air should have little trouble.

I think its a bad idea, I really hoped we would have stayed out of the country.

A no-fly zone I can live with. Anything beyond that will be too much. I read somewhere recently that a disproportionate amount of Libyans composed the membership of a lot of the cadres for Al Qaeda in Iraq. These guys were probably working directly for Gaddafi, whose malice knows no boundaries. But if they were made up of local Libyan radicals who genuinely volunteered to join Al Qaeda then directly supplying them with munitions and other equipment has to be out of the question. It'd be a direct repeat of the mistakes made in Afghanistan in the 1980's where the Islamists were able to take over the guerrila movement and turned that place into a fundamentalist state in the 1990's. Libya might not be terribly important right now but allowing it to turn into another failed state dominated by relgious fundamentalists connected to Al Qaeda would be disasterous. It's too close to Europe and to Egypt, and then Israel, to permit it to happen. Hence the no-fly zone but absolutely no other military assistance afterwards.

Nice to once again see that the lakey flake harper does exactly as told by his handlers. We have no business in or around Libya.

Do you honestly think that any other party leader would have made a different call? I dont like the decision either, but its coming from the UN, if a PM said no he would have A LOT of explaining to do.

I know your a troll D, but when you say something this stupid someone has to call you on it.

Can't wait to see what Iggy is going to say about this!

Or Jack...

Probably something about the new aircraft purchase, and that we do not need overly expensive stealth aircraft for these kind of operations... blah blah blah.

Actually, my very cynical mind was wondering if we were sending them to prove we need them.