Libya's Spheres of Bad Influence by Karim Mezran hits the nail on the head about the urgency of engaging in Libya. This is exactly the argument I made on BBC News Last night, but just not as eloquently as Mezran.
As many analysts have pointed out, the collapse of Libyan security and the transformation of Libyan territory into a safe haven for jihadi terrorists is causing a security nightmare in the area that could easily spill over into southern Europe through the porous coastal borders of Tunisia and Libya.It is time for the Obama administration to understand that contrary to its previous evaluation, North Africa, because of the threat to international security that its destabilization can cause, should become an area of primary interest for the United States. At this point, it is important to ask what might be done to deter and prevent such a potentially catastrophic situation. The primary cause of this collapse in security is also the place where the solution lies: Libya.The administration must engage Libyan institutions in a more proactive way, and these there must be a guarantee of physical protection for the members of the government, the assembly and local councils. The Libyan government should be pushed to ask for NATO support in training a military force to be put at the direct command of the Libyan prime minister to guarantee the enforcement of the central government’s control. If order is reconstituted in Libya, it will prevent the permanent establishment of terrorist organizations in the country, thus inflicting a hard blow to a burgeoning al-Qaeda network in North Africa.