Lord Toad, I choke over the point that if George Bush had done exactly what Barak Obama has done in Libya, there'd be tens of thousands of people out on the streets in western European (and US) cities protesting at his war mongering.
I have an even bigger problem with the way the West, ever since Korea, goes into such ventures half-arsed, placing self-imposed limitations on our armed forces that in the long run, cost far more lives (both to our forces and to the civilian population of the country involved) than a short, sharp, no holds barred action ever would.
I agree with what others have said before me, that supporting the Libyan rebels could really backfire on us, (forget 'could' - make that 'will'), because I don't believe we'll ever be thanked for it if they ever get the upper hand - and quite possibly, they'll turn out to be another Mujahadeen/Taliban a la Afghanistan, which could prove to be really interesting so close to western Europe. (Is there a modern day El Cid out there somewhere? We may well need him, and soon!)
If we're going to back the rebels, let's back them and destroy the Qaddafi regime - and more particularly, Qaddafi himself - and put a stop to all this bleeding heart rubbish about not harming anyone. Far fewer civilians will end up dead or injured in such a campaign than will certainly be killed or injured if this is allowed to go on for months or even years, as this softly softly European policy is almost guaranteeing.