Counterpoint, which is the real Mandela?

"In the world of mundane things, as opposed to the celestial and the imaginary, a buyer is a buyer. The profits that your great corporations make, derive from whoever has the capacity to purchase their products and services, regardless of whether the customers are Chinese or African, Indian or American, European or Arab or Polynesian, male or female, young or old, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Moslem or Animist.

The success of your entrepreneurs, and with it the capacity of your society to give work to your citizens, rests on the fact of the elevation of every person, anywhere in the world, to the position of a free actor in the market place.

It will perhaps come to pass that the imperatives of this commercial market place will produce that magical elixir which the great thinkers of all time have searched for, which sought to convince all societies that the assertion was true and self-evident that whatever our different complexions, whatever our different racial characteristics, whatever our different gender features, we are nonetheless all of us part of one, indivisible and common humanity."
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Govern_Political/Mand_Congr.html

Is supporting a murderous dictator really something the Left can get behind?

Well, it's hard to argue with that, I guess. I'll leave with one more plea for sanity from a Leftist:
http://www.zcommunications.org/libya-the-left-and-losing-our-way-reflections-on-empire-inequality-and-operation-odyssey-dawn-by-paul-street

Most interventions (Imperialist or not) are stupid and foolish. They usually make things worse, not better, as is the case in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and most other places. But they are not always stupid and foolish, sometimes they are the right thing to do. I don't see how the Imperialist powers gain much stopping this potential massacre, since Qaddafi was already in their pocket for years now. That doesn't mean they have pure motives, but an Imperialist one doesn't fit here. It explains an interest in Libya, but not the actions they are taking now.

If I knew how to stop Imperialism (a major problem in the world, but not the only one, or even the worst one), I guess I'd be a genius, but I'm not. I guess the best Leftists in the US can do is try to convince the populace-at-large (or some sub-group of it) that Imperialism is awful, and then try to get them to act on that idea. Beyond that, I have little to offer.

You have not answered the question: what should the Left do when a mass slaughter by a reactionary is imminent, and the Left is in a country that has the military power to stop it? Can military action ever even be consider?

What would you propose doing if Qaddafi's forces were poised to massacre tens of thousands of civilians? Should the Left show passivity in the face of reactionaries such as the late Saddam and the Taliban, or even solidarity?

Gilbert Achcar has made a compelling case that the no-fly zone should not be opposed by leftists.
http://www.zcommunications.org/libyan-developments-by-gilbert-achcar
http://www.zcommunications.org/libya-a-legitimate-and-necessary-debate-from-an-anti-imperialist-perspective-by-gilbert-achcar

Also, didn't imperialist powers in the West supported Qaddafi for years? Aren't western oil companies already operating in Libya with Qaddafi's blessing?