Still searching for a cure for Libya

When is the cure worse than the disease? It's an unanswerable question, but when the disease was Gaddafi's brutal tyranny in Libya, when the cure was a revolution actively supported by international air strikes and when the outcome is now a failed state offering a new launch-pad for Islamist extremists, it's a question which has - at least - to be examined. Diplomats tend to be professional optimists. Most believe that a good outcome from almost any crisis is, at least in theory, possible. They probably have to feel that way to keep going. Talking to them about the collapse of Libya, however, tests even their diplomatic sangfroid severely. Whenever, for instance, the British...