America has a higher rate of success staying out of countries and arming rebels against it's dictators than actually stepping foot in those countries, from Africa to Central America to Afghanistan. The option must be weighed as a matter of practical thinking, so I don't understand what makes that stupid exactly. Arming a few thousand people who are engaged in a popular uprising that supports freedom, dignity and peace over a brutal dictator is much less costly than stepping foot in Libya ourselves, and in terms of precedent, the success rate doing that is much higher than sending in American troops.