As I stated this morning, air-power alone cannot guarantee success for the rebel forces. NATO and the US will either have to let nature take its course or intervene with escalated military force, which will certainly require ground troops. President Obama appears loathsome at the idea — indeed it is a very bad idea for the US. Arming the rebels as an alternative is an even worse idea, however, because, again, as I said this morning; if they succeed in removing Gadaffi what happens when several now well armed groups start killing each other? The answer, of course, is NATO and US ground forces establishing a cease fire and playing peace keepers.
We can’t do this on the cheap. The Middle East is a black hole for presidents and has plagued every administration since Eisenhower. President Obama is learning nothing is done cheaply and quietly there. What was intended to be a few airstrikes that weakened Gadaffi to the point of capitulation or exile is now spiraling out of control. Obama’s team doesn’t want to face it but they have no real options left.
We should hang a big sign over the Middle East that reads: "Here, if you break it, you fix it." Maybe then presidential administrations will get the message.
NY Times | Pro-Qaddafi Forces Push Rebels Into Chaotic Retreat
…[T]he airstrikes, such as they were, did little to reverse the momentum of the battle. On the approaches to Brega, hundreds of cars and small trucks heading east clogged the highway as rebel forces pulled back toward Ajdabiya, recaptured from loyalist troops only days ago. Some rebels said Colonel Qaddafi’s forces, pushing eastward from Ras Lanuf, were within 10 miles of Brega. The retreating force seemed rudderless, a sea of vehicles and fighters armed with rudimentary weapons that have proved no match for Colonel Qaddafi’s better trained and better armed forces, that have intimidated the rebels with long-range shelling.
As rebels clustered at a gas station and small mosque between Brega and Ajdabiya, a single artillery shell or rocket exploded several hundred yards away, causing the rebels, who were chanting “God is great” and waving assault rifles, to jump into their vehicles and speed eastward.
Last week along the same highway, allied airstrikes pounded loyalist forces, enabling the rebels to undertake a lightning advance that carried them toward the Libyan leader’s hometown of Surt — a symbolic and strategically important objective on the long, coastal highway leading to Tripoli. But the advance stalled when pro-Qaddafi forces counterattacked, apparently, seemingly in response to President Obama’s speech Monday night.
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