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| Residents in Ajdabiya look at a reconaissance plane © AFP Roberto Schmidt |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US senators calling for a no-fly zone over Libya warned Wednesday that Washington would pay a steep price for leaving strongman Moamer Kadhafi in power and pleaded for aid to beleaguered rebels.
"Kadhafi will be vengeful. And we're not through with him, and I think we had a chance here to be through with him," said independent Senator Joe Lieberman, who underlined: "I think we'll pay for it."
"The situation is getting more critical, the consequences of Kadhafi coming back to power are far-reaching and long-lasting -- all of the consequences in my view being bad," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
Graham noted that US President Barack Obama, when he was a senator, often tied the Iraq war to his predecessor, George W. Bush, and said the same thing would happen with Libya.
"I think history's going to say that the Obama administration owns the Kadhafi regime. And everything that flows thereafter if he comes back to power, they're going to own," Graham said.
Graham said Iran would get "the wrong message" from Washington's failure to stop a regime trying to "murder its own people" and warned that the Libya standoff could shape the West's effort to curb Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
"I think the chance of Iran being deterred in the future from pursuing their nuclear ambitions grows exponentially lower if Kadhafi is able to survive the challenges from the West," he said.
"The noose is not tightening on Kadhafi, apparently, it's tightening on his own people, and we seem to not be able to make a decision," said Graham.
Their comments came as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry held a closed-door classified briefing for members of his panel on the situation in Libya. Kerry declined to comment after the session.
Graham said there was still time to help the rebels, who have been driven back by Kadhafi's forces, stressing: "The sooner we act to provide some air cover, the sooner the momentum can change -- and I believe it can."
"I think the rebels are going to stiffen their resistance, they're fighting for their lives, they know what happens if they lose, and so I think that the outcome of this engagement is by no means over," he said.
But there was no sign in the US Congress of the kind of common front needed to shape Washington's response to the crisis, with many key lawmakers opposed to action without more explicit international support, notably from the United Nations.
Senator Richard Lugar, the top Republican on Kerry's committee, told AFP he had not budged from his view that the Arab League should pay for any no-fly zone over Libya and that imposing one was an act of war against Libya.
"What Kadhafi is doing there is not acceptable for America's values. But I don't think America should
unilaterally intervene, because we don't want to make the United States the issue," said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
"The US is very overextended at this point. I just don't see us going it alone," said Democratic Senator Tom Udall.
"I think we need the Arab League, I think we need NATO, and if they're all willing to participate, and it may well be we need to go to the (UN) Security Council too, but then we could play a role," said Udall.
"The Arab League could do this on their own if they thought it was really urgent. They have the planes and they have the ability to do it," he told AFP.
Graham pointed to Russian and Chinese opposition to a no-fly zone as a likely death knell for the proposal and said "I would not let the Security Council be the last word on what's best for our national security."
The Republican lawmaker praised France for pushing for recognizing the opposition government and calling for a no-fly zone, saying: "One general rule of politics; be as bold as the French and you'll never go wrong."
Lieberman said he was "very disappointed about the fact that the world -- including the United States -- has not come to the aid of the opposition to Kadhafi."
"We've got a terribly unfair fight going on between two sides: One side is just plain bad, and the other side is full of hope and hope for peaceful change. The world has effectively stood back and let the bad side -- which has so much more military power -- prevail," he said.
© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license
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