Juan Cole is mistaken. The current bombardment of Libya does not need to be equivalent to the Iraq War of 2003 to be deplorable. Instead the more apt parallel is with the Gulf War of 1991. Or with Operation Just Cause in 89. Or with the invasion of Grenada in 83. Not to mention the Kosovo war and Bosnian intervention.
The imperialist war against Libya should be opposed not simply on account of the deaths, both civilian AND military, that are resulting from it. It must be resolutely opposed also because it opens the door for a series of future U.S. led wars of aggression which will inevitably lead to the destruction of entire countries. in other words, this war need not be Iraq, but it foreshadows a new Iraq not too many years hence.
President Obama is rendering a superb service to the American empire in it's age of decadence, by seeking to dispel a second iteration of the Vietnam syndrome when it has barely even begun.