Both the French and the British intend to send troops in to, “Protect aid deliveries,” despite the fact that Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, has said that this is not necessary, and may risk conflating the aid program with military action.
The problem here is that there have been explicit calls for regime change since the UN resolution had passed, and because the Qaddafi regime has refused to collapse like a bunch of wet broccoli, the French and the British have felt the need to escalate in order to save face.
Not like Vietnam at all.
Sarkosy is trying to save his ass in the next elections, and Cameron is trying to distract the British public from the failure of his full throated embrace of Hoovernomics, and they thought that a “Private Little War” would be good for politics, and it allowed them to get their colonialist rocks off as a bonus.
Unfortunately, wars are never a certainty.