With respect to the situation in Libya it seems to me there were two basic questions to be answered.
Do we take part in the military action?
At what level do we contribute?
It is the second question that causes the debate. Norway has sent some F-16s, I'm not sure how many, about 6 I would guess. They have contributed to what has become a reasonably broad mixture of nations involved, at a level they can sustain. We didn't NEED to contribute at a much higher level. It is our Government and MOD that have elected to go in at a much higher level, SSNs with cruise missiles, Frigates, Typhoons, GR4s, tankers, R1s (??), Sentinel, etc.....
The whole point of the SDSR, or rather what the point of the SDSR should have been about (as opposed to being just a cost cutting exercise), was deciding what as a nation we intended to try and achieve globally. If we want to remain a key player/big hitter then we need to fund it. To me the SDSR said we are no longer willing to fund being a major world military power.
All this talk of should we have kept a CVS and Harriers as they would have been useful in Libya, should we stop scrapping them, etc, is ignoring the fact that we could just have sent a handful of aircraft and be seen to be "doing our bit".....
This government, possibly quite rightly given the financial position we are in, isn't willing to fund anything more, but still expects the armed UK forces to achieve miracles, just like the government before it!