Although Libya’s portion of global oil supplies is not gigantic, the truth is the no fly zone would NOT have come up and never would have approached approval at the U.N. if Ghaddafi already held the oil export port of Bengazi - now held by the rebels - and if the rebels held Tripoli instead - an area not as central to Libya’s oil industry.
Find a “rebels vs dictator” scene anywhere in the world (like Ivory coast right now, for example), now and in recent history, and you’ll likely find if the nation concerned is not an oil exporter, there likely was, or is no call for a “no fly zone” to favor the rebels.
There is, and has been for decades, good cause to oppose Ghaddafi. None of the good reasons ever led to concerted action against him, even after Lockerbie, until political leaders saw an opportunity to separate him from Libya’s oil.
Call me a cynic.
You Cynic.