The “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom has at times grown cooler, but both nations closely cooperated in supporting the recent UN resolution to protect Libyans from embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. Since then, the UK has taken a leading role in the NATO air strikes on Libya’s military and governmental infrastructure, and in fact has become so invested in the operations that Defense Secretary Liam Fox refused to adhere to a strict 6-month deadline for military action in the country, declaring that Britain is “there for the long haul to protect the Libyan people." Why is the UK eager to involve itself in an expensive and potentially bloody conflict? And why is its intervention in Libya less controversial than in Iraq? Join Patt in a conversation with Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the United Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations