There, hundreds of supporters offered themselves up as human shields, cheering to newly minted dance songs about their adoration for their leader. “House by house, ally by ally,” the catchiest song went, quoting a Qaddafi speech. “Disinfect the germs from each house and each room.”

look. i have caught some shit for being a "pro-war anarchist," and i like catchy pro-genocide songs as much as the next pop fan, but surely every decent person wants to gaddafi deleted from the species. i'm not a pacifist. i realize that in an anarchist world you wouldn't have tomahawk missiles and aircraft carriers. but given that we don't live in such a world, i say that if you are in a position to prevent this fuckhead from slaughtering thousands of people, you ought to. an anarchist isn't likely to be a fan of a murderous dictator, though he might point out that every state transforms its entire population into potential victims. but that doesn't mean that obama is the moral equivalent of gaddafi, or that it isn't admirable for sarkozy, problematic though he is on many grounds, to assemble a coalition to bitch-slap that motherfucker.

you might ask whether i supported the war in iraq on the same grounds. well, all things being equal, saddam should have been wood-chipped too. but he was not right in the middle of mass murder. i actually argued at the time that any arguments the bush admin was putting forward that had any plausibility were better arguments for intervening in darfur. but libya just seems like a clear extremely urgent case. i think saleh in yemen would be a good victim too if we were to continue. i fear that we're still going to try to keep him holding on. but it might break down into true massacre at any moment.