The unbearable Libya lightness of Juan Cole

Cole is someone for whom I, like Glenn Greenwald, had a lot of respect for on issues related to Iraq and Afghanistan. But, with a breezy, one-paragraph defense of the Libya incursion, based largely on the fig leaf of UN blessing (a fig leaf that at least Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thinks is selective, and not blocking the U.S. from selling arms to the rebels), it's really hard to take him seriously on his defense.

I left a comment on his one-paragraph blog post, asking if he agrees with Clinton, that we have the right to arm the rebels now.

We'll see what his answer is, and we'll see how this shows how little or how much the two magic letters "UN" are a shibboleth for him.

Here's Greenwald's open letter to Cole.

Or, Juan, what do we do if, say, the UN Security Council calls for members to act in the Ivory Coast?

Or, what do we do when the other 14 Security Council members condemn Israeli settlements? Well, we just found out the answer to that one.

The "liberal" half of America's ruling class will exploit "UN" in whatever ways it wants. And you're dumb enough to tag along and provide "cover."

Beyond that, his father's years of service in the Army Signal Corps (per Cole's Wiki page) and his admission that he sometimes does consulting work for the military (details, Juan?) might mean we need to raise an eyebrow at just how liberal he actually is.