Go to Libya, Mr Pilger

It is also important to realise that America and her allies, flailing for an angle in response to the imminent collapse of their hegemony over the Middle East, seeing an opportunity to be rid of a troublesome man with too much oil and attitude to ignore, and desperately seeking a chance to appear to be on the right side of history, have gone in half cocked. In the words of a member of the American intelligence and foreign policy community (speaking on condition of anonymity), this is the closest a US policy position has ever been to "you know what, fuck that guy!"In any case it is a far cry from the decade-plus of planning and agitation that went into the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This is largely why it is possible for me to support the action. If America / NATO did have a solid plan it would be to bomb the Arabs and take the oil. The situation might develop into that - but the evidence so far doesn't suggest it will.

I'm betting on Western impotence here, not benevolence. I expect the Libyans to continue fighting for control of their destiny once Gaddafi is gone – and I remember being told by more than one Libyan who backed the airstrikes that if a foreign occupation force did arrive, they would turn their guns around and fight side by side with Gaddafi's forces against it. They are not fools or sycophants, looking at our warplanes through rose tinted glasses. They see that the West has, for whatever reasons, and perhaps by accident more than by design, done the right thing.

Of course, it is problematic to lend legitimacy to any Western military intervention, when taken on the whole they have been ghastly. The proper response to this fact, in light of the good done in Libya, is to campaign for fairer and more competent international organisations to oversee such actions (and indeed inter-state relations more generally) - not to insist on standing round doing nothing while people are massacred and calling for help.

This is obviously an awkward position to take, but that is better than taking an arrogant and heartless one which ignores the opinions and fates of the people most affected.

Go to Libya Mr Pilger, and I am prepared to bet you will leave as I did, with the firm conviction that it is more important to stand with the Libyan people than to stand against NATO and America.