Who says the Libyan rebels don’t want our help?

Something struck me as being not quite right after reading a column by Anne Applebaum which tried to discount any Libyan or international support for deeper American intervention, like the imposition of a no-fly zone:

I’m listening hard, but I just can’t hear the “voices around the world” who my colleague Charles Krauthammer said last week are “calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Gaddafi.” … [O]utside America’s borders, all is silence. Certainly nobody in the Arab world is clamoring for American military intervention, or indeed any American intervention: Egyptian democrats are even wary of taking our development money… The last thing the rebels want, apparently, is the stigma of contact with foreigners.

That’s not entirely true. There’s not a sane soul in the world who wants to see the U.S. invade Libya, but substantial support short of that — electronic jamming of pro-Qaddafi forces’ communications, or the no-fly zone, or dropping supplies — could be of great use to the rebels. Don’t believe me? Ask a rebel:

The Libyan air force has been Gaddafi’s trump card in these daily battles — raising international concerns about Libyans, both rebels and civilians, being massacred from above, and strengthening the argument for a no-fly zone imposed by foreign governments, an idea the rebels support.

“I watch Obama on TV, he always calls for Gaddafi to step down but he doesn’t do anything,” said a rebel fighter at the checkpoint beside the Ras Lanuf oil refinery. “We will fight our own battles on the ground but we need their help from the sky.”

Granted, it’s an anecdote. But in the absence of opinion polls, that’s what we got. And internationally, it’s unfair to say no one is behind the idea of greater Western involvement (at least with the veneer of an international organization). The UK and France are working on a UN resolution to establish a no-fly zone, which by necessity would be primarily the responsibility of the U.S.

I understand that Applebaum’s piece was mostly a rejoinder to giddy ex-neocons like Charles Krauthammer. Still, there are responsible and moral ways the U.S. can expand its support for the Libyan rebels if it so chooses.