We seem to be involved in firing missiles at Libya

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

Bloody hell.

the West has finally came out verbally against Gaddafi and so must follow through now, he was their new friend fairly recently
their rhetoric on democracy would really echo hollow otherwise too although Egypt has changed leader but that is all, its still the same people in charge..

Oil no doubt plays a part but so do other factors such as Gaddafi himself and not forgetting the Lockerbie bombing

meditrina a civil war that festers on for years?

Siobahnagain: who knows?

Ok to clarify my googling (and would appreciate some input ere as to whether I am on the right track!) Gadaffi has ruled for 40 odd years and is a bit nutso and it is only recently that Jalil has come along i.e. since the whole Tunisia/Egypt thing. And the UK are supporting Jalil as, basically, he isnt Gadaffi!

IMO we missed the boat spectacularly on Tunisya and Egypt, we recognised the Libyan rebels too early and now to save face we have to support them to show our recognition is worth something. The problem is we're up against quite possibly one if the most insane men in the world who is never in a million years going to let anyone take over his country, has weapons and will use them (and a track record of action against other countries who piss him off).

I don't think the only difference is oil because if Egypt went tits up we'd have been marching in to keep Suez open, as that's even more important than oil.

Ok, there is a really good summary here

Or explanation #2 - it's a full moon.

can't we get our oil somewhere else?

I don't want to sound stupid.
If we're at war with Libya (which it sounds like we are, could be wrong) is England going to be bombed?
And is it just me, or is Nicolas Sarkozy rather yummy?

Hmm dont we actually have to have war declared on us and or declare it ourselves and Officially have the words said? as in "we are now at war with..."??

UK imports about 10% of its oil from Libya.

For US, it's less than 1%.

We won't get bombed - if by that you mean planes reaching us and firing missiles.

But Libya used to be a state sponsor of terrorists.

But then, isnt Britain going into action with Libya the same as going into action in Afghanistan/Saddam? And are we at war with them? What is the difference between 'war' and 'military action'?

Maryz - yes basically you are right. Perhaps more importantly they also export a lot of Naptha out of Ras Lanuf refinery which is essential to European plastic manufacturing. It is basically the essential raw material. Libya export 100 - 150 thousand metric tonnes a month of Naptha to Europe.

They also export about 11 billion cubic metres of natural gas a lot of which goes to Spain and Italy.

meditrina -so we would expect an increase in the dangers of things like 9/11 or 7/7?

SueWhite - I don't think that's the case. As I understand it, the problem has been that USA has been slow to step up to the mark and be counted - hence fact that "rest of world" is late in agreeing to no fly zone etc. Now the game is on, USA is hiding behind us and France - sort of, "they told me to do this, mister." It's why Obama is getting such flack at the moment.

If so, at what point do we start to worry about family and friends flying to the UK? And would it be from only certain destinations that are more at risk? For example, a plane from, say, somewhere in the middle east would be more of a worry to be on than, say, Australia?

OR: I don't have balls, let alone crystal ones. Ghadaffi has been making all sorts of wild threats today, but I've no idea whether he still remains capable of striking outside his borders.

LOL sorry I wasnt saying you would know just asking if it would be a safe thing to assume that the state of alert thingy would go up. What as he been saying (havent had a chance to catch the news today)?

The Tomahawk missiles that the UK and US forces have fired will have taken out much of the Libyan air defences, command centres etc.

We are not at war, we are playing a part in enforcing a UN resolution. The Arab league has backed the resolution so there is little chance of pissing off Arab countries.

Perhaps our Government will reconsider some of the cuts to our military now - this situation has escalated very quickly and if we're going to carry out operations in one form or another they need to be properly funded.

I've been listening to the News - one little irony is that today is 8 years to the day since the start of the invasion of Iraq.

Some commentators are talking in terms of "war" and ousting Ghadaffi, but 1973 isn't framed in those terms.

Ghadaffi has control of most of Libya, including the capital, and of most of the military and other levers of power, and control of the economy (such as it is), and the internal media. He also has decades of experience of living as a pariah, under international sanctions.

Good point.

I read we are actually deploying Tornado aircraft that are in line to be grounded/scrapped in the cuts.

Is anyone in Govt capable of joined up thinking?