Libya's rebels without arms fit for purpose

AJDABIYAH, LIBYA - APRIL 14: A youth draped i...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
C.J. Chivers:

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Few who have seen the front lines would dispute that Libya’s rebels need arms matched to their fight. But as the European powers send military advisers to eastern Libya, the developing NATO plan to help the rebels organize themselves quickly into an effective fighting force confronts their backers with difficult issues.

A survey of weapons carried by hundreds of rebels fighting on two fronts — in eastern Libya and the besieged city of Misurata — presents a picture of an armed uprising that is both underequipped and in custody of many weapons with no utility in the war at hand. The rebels are also in possession of weapons that if sold, lost or misused, could undermine their revolution’s reputation and undercut their cause.

These include anti-aircraft missiles and land mines, both of which the rebels have used on at least a limited basis so far, and which pose long-term regional security threats. They include as well heavier weapons — Type 63 and Grad rockets — that rebels have fired indiscriminately, endangering civilians and civilian infrastructure.

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It appears that Libya had no equivalent to the Second Amendment. That is not surprising in a country ruled by a despot. They need rifles, but they also need training in the importance of aimed fire as well as defensive fields of fire. They need command structure to organize resistance and plan attacks. They need so much that their cause would be hopeless against a better organized government force.

Turning this rag tag bunch into the equivalent of the Northern Alliance seems like a task beyond the scope of operations by NATO. This entire operation appears to be based on a hope that air attacks would make Qaddafi quickly crumble. That might have been possible if Obama had not waited so long to launch, although it would still have been more a matter of luck.

The mess has now devolved into quagmire city. It is proof that applying inadequate means to the project is unlikely to achieve success.
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