Where is Libya policy headed?
Image via WikipediaHaving largely succeeded in stopping a rout of Libya’s rebels, the inchoate coalition attacking Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces remains divided over the ultimate goal — and exit strategy — of what officials acknowledged Thursday would be a military campaign that could last for weeks.There is more.
The United States has all but called for Colonel Qaddafi’s overthrow from within — with American commanders on Thursday openly calling on the Libyan military to stop following orders — even as administration officials insist that is not the explicit objective of the bombing, and that their immediate goal is more narrowly defined.
France has gone further, recognizing the Libyan rebels as the country’s legitimate representatives, but other allies, even those opposed to Colonel Qaddafi’s erratic and authoritarian rule, have balked. That has complicated the planning and execution of the military campaign and left its objective ill defined for now.
Only on Thursday, the sixth day of air and missile strikes, did the allies reach an agreement to give command of the “no-fly” operation to NATO after days of public quarreling that exposed the divisions among the alliance’s members.
“From the start, President Obama has stated that the role of the U.S. military would be limited in time and scope,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday evening in announcing the plan.
But even that agreement — brokered by Mrs. Clinton and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Turkey — frayed almost immediately over how far the military campaign should go in trying to erode the remaining pillars of Colonel Qaddafi’s power by striking his forces on the ground and those devoted to protecting him. It was salvaged, one diplomat said, only by papering over the differences concerning the crucial question of who actually controls military strikes on Libya’s ground forces.
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The Turks do not have the same interest in the outcome as the US and its other allies. They are much closer to the Libyan position than to the US position. They have been one of the chief stumbling blocks in using NATO as a command vehicle because they do not want to stop Qaddafi's attacks on his people. Now that Qaddafi's air force has been eliminated as a factor the command of the "no fly zone" is not of much consequence. The real work right now is directed toward close air support and taking out Qaddafi's armor and infantry units.
To do the latter we need special forces on the ground to help target his forces for precision guided weapons. So Far the Brits has sent in SAS and SBS troops for the jobs and have some 800 Royal Marines on standby to do likewise. Apparently the US is not committing any special ops forces at this time unless Obama and his administration are changing the definition of ground troops not to include them.
The command fiasco is a continuing embarrassment that shows how poorly planed this "kinetic" operation has been.
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