I don't fucking believe this. The UN is all about its protocol and charters and bureaucracy and whatnot. Still, nice to see that the French are doing something other then losing for a change. Well, World War III here we come! Heil Kim Jong-Il!
The french constantly losing is ill-informed nonsense, even if they did get stomped in WW2. This news is just slightly old. In addition to that, it's as much of a war as the war on terrorism. If anyone expects Libya to be able to hold out against combined allied forces when no one else is going to help them, even if Libya was undivided it would stand no chance- and it's far from undivided.
It won't take long for the UN to dismantle anything Gadaffi tries to throw together. Also, the shitstorm between the UN and the Gadaffi regime has been going on for nigh 30 years and more. It's only just recently escalated to direct aggression by the UN, rather than less obvious attempts to do underhanded blows. This is far more provoked that some of the "interventions" that the UN has been involved in.
As for oil claims, Libya produced about 2.2% of the worlds oil production in 2007, according to statistics (
http://www.nationmaster.com/red/pie/ene_oil_pro-energy-oil-production)- chances are, it hasn't increased much from then if at all. While that's alot of oil, it's not much of what's being produced, exported and used. So, admittedly people with oil stocks in Libya might be frightened that their supply may be cut off for whatever term, but the point is: the world will keep on turning. We won't run out of oil just because one country gets isolated for a few years at most, the same was true for Iraq and whatever.
The cost of these small-scale wars are also extravagant. Even if the involved intervention forces do take a temporary share of the oil production, which even I myself believe is likely, I doubt it's a highly profitable endeavour- if anything it's to counter a bit of the deficit.
Personally, I think America will dip it's fingers in any military conflict of today's world, largely because they spend so much on their military, so why not use it? It makes them look better if they fight for humanitarian rights, so they gain prestige even if there's always the accompanying controversy. The UN inevitably follows, no doubt also to exercise their military arms and fight for the right reasons.
This war actually has a pretty dictatorial figure at its head, even if the gadaffi regime has seen some great gains for Libya. Supremacism is always frowned upon, and promotes a kind of isolationistic attitude that inevitably causes the economy and relations to suffer. So, it isn't really surprising.