As Kevin Drum notes, our mission in Libya–ostensibly aimed at protecting civilians from Qaddafi’s regime–has become a bona fide intervention into a civil war.

When this was being pitched as a humanitarian effort to protect civilians, it seemed unseemly to ask about the character of the rebels or the nature of the government they would establish. But if the West is in effect taking sides in this conflict, isn’t it fair to ask what kind of horse we’re backing? Some of Drum’s commenters compared this to our support of the mujahedeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan during the ’80s, who were portrayed at the time as heroic freedom fighters. And, hey, that turned out great, so why worry?