What are we doing in Libya?

That's the $64 question this week. People keep asking, and other people keep answering. And it's like asking someone for the time. Every minute you get a different answer.

In today's Globe and Mail, Margaret Wente poses a plethora of good questions, such as:

• What is our objective?
• Are we fighting to protect the Libyan population from the government, or are we fighting for régime change?
• What if air strikes don’t knock out the bad guys and they keep on killing people anyway?
• What national interest do we have in this war?
• Who takes the lead role when the US steps down?
• Who says Libya’s rebels are the good guys?
• What happens if (as seems likely) there are no good guys?

Making himself clear, as always, Obama says this war is “a chance to align our values with our interests.” For others, it's a risky decision to insert ourselves into a tribal society we don’t understand. Haven’t we done enough of that already?

As General David Petraeus said of Afghanistan, “Tell me how this ends.”

Footnote: Whatever happened to The Sixty-four Dollar Question? I can't seem to find it on my radio any more.