"The stakes are so very high for Gaddafi & remarkably low for the intervening governments ..."

FLC

"... The other definition of victory by the three most significant intervening governments is that the military intervention will end when Gaddafi is no longer in power. According to Obama, Cameron, and Sarkozy, the intervention will continue until he has been removed. Pursuing this goal has meant that the intervening governments have repeatedly ruled out any cease-fire or political settlement, no matter how temporary, which might provide an opportunity for relief supplies to reach civilians suffering in besieged cities and those displaced from their homes by the fighting. The rebels’ non-negotiable precondition for any cease-fire is the final overall objective of the U.S., Britain, and France. ...

Gaddafi can deny the intervening governments victory simply by remaining where he is and continuing to press the rebels in their besieged strongholds (one of which just suffered a major blow to its fuel supplies from pro-Gaddafi forces). Because the stakes are so very high for Gaddafi and remarkably low for the intervening governments, it is hard to see why he is going to yield first. The reality is that non-U.S. allies do not seem to be prepared politically or militarily to outlast him, and the U.S. is appropriately unwilling to increase its involvement in a war that was at best of tangential concern to America all along. As we now enter the fifty-second day of this undeclared, unconstitutional war, it is well past time to begin thinking about how to bring this conflict to a halt and to minimize the costs to NATO and the Libyan population."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 12:37 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian