The time is rapidly approaching when we need to end this thing as quickly and as cleanly as possible. Continued dancing on the head of a pin named Resolution 1973 over whether we can or cannot target Gaddafi or whether we can or cannot arm the rebels serves only to increase the chances of becoming stuck in a quagmire from which we will be unable easily to escape. The most important risk in all this is that, when the inevitable time comes, we will have neither the appetite, ability nor political resolve to deal with the one that really matters – Iran. Libya is a side-show compared with preventing the mad mullahs in Tehran from getting a deliverable nuclear capability. When the Iran volcano erupts again, as it surely will, the stakes will be so high that, no matter how cynical, exhausted, over-committed and broke we may be, it will be one match where we can’t afford to stay on the bench.