Civil War in Libya

[Lemur]

Wait, does this mean that we are in another unfunded, undeclared war? Would it be okay with Europeans if we sat this one out?

-edit-

And could somebody else pick up the tab this time? We're kinda hurting from our last two excursions.

Establishing and taking control of the skies over Libya could cost the Pentagon up to $300 million a week – or around $15 billion a year – under mission scenarios formulated by a top Washington defense think tank. [...] “Assuming an operational tempo similar to that of the no-fly zones in Iraq, the ongoing cost might be in the range of $100 [million] to $300 million per week,” states the report.

The full option would require taking out Libyan air defense systems in what the think tank says would be a “series of coordinated strikes” at a “one-time ... cost between $500 million and $1 billion.”

The northern option would put U.S. aircraft in control of all Libyan turf above the 29th parallel, which includes about 230,000 square miles, according to CSBA. The cost of this kind of mission would fall between $30 million and $100 million per week.

A northern no-fly would also require the U.S. military to deal with Libyan air defense systems, meaning it would still come with a one-time bill of between $400 million and $800 million, CSBA said.