Let them get on with it

'No foreign intervention! Libyans can manage it alone' the banners read. They are written in English and are for the benefit of us and the Americans. An SAS team were captured and kicked out of the country.

But somehow we just can't seem to get the message. There is a certain sort of politician, akin to the armchair warrior in the pub, who feels that at every bit of disturbance we should intervene; 'send a gunboat' as Viscount Palmerston used to rage. 'Kill an Argie, win a Metro' as Private Eye had it during the Falklands War.

This is their fight. A 'no fly zone', fortunately likely to be vetoed by Russia, would mean an attack on Libys's air defences, and would be the first step towards a war we wouldn't be able to get out of. And we have fought enough of those these 10 years.

People are killed all the time by murderous regimes in China, Burma, Zimbabwe and countless other places without us intervening. This is the Libyans' fight. Let us wish the protesters well and let them get on with it.