What it published instead is instructive.

On March 18, 2011, the editorial board endorsed President Obama's assertion that the region would be destabilized if Gaddafi stayed in power, but insisted that America could not fight a war on behalf of Libya's rebels. On March 21, the editorial board avowed that Obama had no need to get congressional permission for his actions in Libya due to their limited nature. The next day, it asserted that "because of its limits, the military intervention threatens to perpetuate a stalemate that leaves Mr. Gaddafi in power, and that over time would create both a greater humanitarian crisis and more serious threats to U.S. and European interests," and endorsed a warning by Hillary Clinton that if Gaddafi stayed, "Libya could become 'a giant Somalia,' riven by tribal warfare and anarchy that allows al-Qaeda to create a stronghold." As it turned out, the Obama approach didn't leave Gaddafi in power; the humanitarian crisis and destabilization did happen.

The editorial board spent the next couple months insisting that Obama was putting unsustainable strain on France and Britain by refusing to do more, another argument that events proved wrong, and then in June the editorial board argued that Obama was doing enough in Libya that his actions were a violation of the law, but that he should keep doing it anyway.

That brings us to the July 13, 2011 editorial, "Preparing for a new Libya." The Post offered the Obama Administration advice: Get frozen funds to the rebels. "The Benghazi-based administration has shown itself to be moderate and responsible, and it has committed itself repeatedly to an agenda of democracy and personal freedoms," the editors wrote. "Access to funds will make it more stable and more prepared to take charge of the country when the Gaddafi regime finally goes." The editors also urged a bigger U.S. diplomatic presence in Benghazi.

That was the extent of their advice.

Only after Gaddafi fell did the editors give a fuller picture of the challenges that would emerge even in a rebel victory:

The threats begin with the more than two dozen rebel militias that participated in the fighting and that now coexist uneasily in Tripoli and other cities. Not all have been integrated into the chain of command under the transitional council; some commanded by Islamists have received their own weapons and funding from the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The often-undisciplined militias have abused and even tortured prisoners and suspected Gaddafi supporters, Human Rights Watch reported. Mr. Gaddafi himself may have been killed after having been captured on Thursday.



Added to this volatile mix are huge stockpiles of weapons, including thousands of surface-to-air missiles and chemical arms, acquired by the Gaddafi regime. Many have been unsecured for weeks, and some have already been smuggled across Libya's borders.



Do you think the average Washington Post reader might have thought differently about the intervention had the early editorials stated, "Gaddafi must pay for his crimes, even though once he is ousted from power dozens of rebel militias, some run by Islamists, will exist uneasily beside one another, with huge stockpiles of weapons likely to be smuggled across the border"? What if they'd also stated, "And by participating, the U.S. will be morally obligated to intervene in a neighboring country few Americans presently know exists should it be destabilized"?