18 March 2011 It’s a Mystere to me. Or, Pull over at that Mirage, we need to walk the camel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18iht-edcohen18.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Be Ruthless or Stay Out

By ROGER COHEN

Published: March 17, 2011

LONDON — For years I watched a “no-fly zone” in Bosnia. I watched Bosnian Muslims being slaughtered as NATO patrolled the skies. The no-fly zone was created by the United Nations Security Council in October 1992. The Srebrenica massacre took place in July 1995. Enough said.

While we may not be able to resist the GOP’s mad dash to yet another war in a Muslim nation. I was pleased to see France proclaim its intent to bring military force into the Libyan situation.

The French Air Force (Armée de l'Air (ALA), literally Army of the Air) will field various models of the Dassault Mirage 2000 and the Dassault Rafale

, in order to fly BARCAP missions over Libya. These aircraft can be refueled in mid air for extended flight time. The Dassault company has a long history of providing France with high capability fighters. The Dassault MD.454 Mystère IV was a 1950s French fighter-bomber aircraft, the first transonic aircraft to enter service in French Air Force. While these no longer fly for France, they could most likely be flown effectively against the current Libyan air force.



The Libyan air force fields various Soviet era MiG, Sukhoi airframes. They also may field Soko J-21 Jastreb, from Yugoslavia Aero L-39 Albatros from Czechoslovakia . They have a Dassault Mirage or two. While they possess a fair sized air force, the Soviet air frames were what the Soviets referred to as monkey copies – intended for the least capable air forces, lacking anything but the basic aeronautics and armament capability. France limited what capabilities Dassault could export just as the U.S. limits our aerospace firms from selling our top-level technology to other nations.



The U.S. may provide AWAC coverage using either USAF land-based planes or USN carrier-based planes. That type of support would leave our troops least exposed to hostile and/or friendly fire. Any Western planes that fly into Libyan air space will more likely than not be at greater risk from “friendly” fire than from hostile.

The GOP/teahadists are trying to cut every social safety net in sight as well as NPR, Planned Parenthood, and Head Start. They scream about the cost of health care while letting corporate health care write any regulations they want. They can’t hand Wall Street enough deregulation. But in the midst of budget gutting, they line up in lockstep to spend another billion or so each day invading Arab nations.