Air strikes on Libya

A mentally unstable leader systematically abuses and kills his own citizens. He denies them any right to disagree with him and tortures those who disobey.
That sounds a lot like Moammar Gadhafi, but it also sounds a lot like Saddam Hussein. Here we go again, folks.
President George W. Bush took a lot of heat for deciding to topple Saddam’s regime by force, but the United Nations needs to understand it is pursuing a course that is not that much different, with many of the same pitfalls.

First, there are some obvious differences. Bush went into Iraq virtually alone, or at least without the support of the United Nations. He used the pretext of putting an end to Saddam’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, which some intelligence gatherers in several nations believed he had (he didn’t).
Gadhafi, shown above shaking hands with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is in the middle of a brutal civil war, in which he appears to be successfully beating back rebel forces.
There was a no-fly zone in effect over Iraq before Bush went to war, and there were sanctions. The no-fly zone was an irritant of dubious value. The sanctions, the oil-for-food-program, was riddled with corruption (thank you, France).
One could compare the situation in Libya today to a house on fire, while Iraq was more of a slowly unfolding crisis in which people were locked in a house that was collapsing one room at a time.
Neither situation lends itself to easy solutions.
But the United Nations Security Council, which voted Thursday to approve air strikes, has now inserted itself into a situation that isn’t much more stable than what existed in Iraq in 2003. Almost everyone agrees the rebels are on the side of the angels now, but it’s unclear who would take over power if Gadhafi were overthrown, or how far allied forces will have to go in order to overthrow him.
Bush was rightly criticized for not having a good plan in place for establishing peace after Saddam left. I see nothing from the United Nations or any Security Council member to indicate anyone has a plan for what to do when and if Gadhafi leaves, or even whether air strikes continue, or intervention escalates, if the conflict bogs down in a drawn-out stalemate.
There is a clear right and wrong here. Gadhafi is a brutal madman and his people have every right to rebel. Beyond that, though, things get complicated in a hurry.