LONDON May 25 (Reuters) – British Foreign Secretary William Hague dismissed fears that Western nations were getting dragged into an Iraq-style conflict with their campaign against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

France, Britain and the United States are leading the air strikes on Libya, which started in March after the U.N. Security Council authorised “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces.

Richard Dannatt, former head of the British army, has noted parallels with the campaign in Iraq when U.S.-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003 but then faced a bloody insurgency.

“It’s very different from Iraq because of course in the case of Iraq there were very large numbers of ground forces deployed from Western nations,” Hague told BBC Radio 4.

“That’s clearly not the case and it’s not going to be the case in Libya. It’s right to point to the need for a political process when Gaddafi goes, and that of course is something we discuss with the National Transitional Council in Libya,” he added. read more

Comment: Unfortunately Mr. Hague either does not understand the full problem or only thinks of the UK. OK, no “UK troops on the ground” may mean less UK death, however, what is becoming the same in Libya as in Iraq is the ‘militarization’ of the whole country. Now everyone has a gun (and needs it). Already in the ‘free’ part of the country ‘loyalists’ of Gaddafi are being gunned down without any trial. Such inter-Libyan violence may continue for years and decades. The danger of that rises by the day.