Why is NATO in Libya?
So NATO is clearly following the UN mandate that authorized a NATO no fly zone in order to protect civilians (and nothing more.) Responding to whether NATO would pursue Qaddafi military vehicles fleeing south to Niger and possibly Burkina Faso, Colonel Roland Lavoie, the NATO mission’s military spokesman, said: To be clear, our mission is to … Read more
Could Qaddafi Have Freed Shalit?
Asharq Alawsat is reporting that deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi had offered to secure the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit and to sign an official peace treaty with Israel in exchange for an end to the NATO airstrikes. Qaddafi had apparently contacted Druze politician Ayoob Kara and presented his offer before being forced … Read more
Can Sanctions Bring Down Assad?
It seems as though there is a new article everyday about how Assad is doomed in Syria with many claiming that sanctions alone will be able to bring down the Assad regime. In addition to some serious sanctions by the US the European Union recently announced a ban on oil imports/exports (though the ban will … Read more
In Case Anyone Still Thinks Libya is the Beginning
I have repeatedly said that the intervention in Libya would not scare other despotic rulers into treating protests peacefully and would actually demonstrate the inability of the west to intervene elsewhere (see here and, most recently, the comment section here.) Not only did Libya demonstrate hoe intervention can be dragged out – “Days not weeks” … Read more
Competing Precedents Set in Libya
For the last few months, I have been in general agreement with much of what Daniel Larison has said about the intervention in Libya: I don’t see how intervening in Libya was in the American interest (and I do not buy the argument that it acted as a deterrent to other autocratic regimes) and I … Read more
Proof That NATO is Relevant. And Irrelevant, Part II
Apparently George Grant is not the only one who thought that the performance of of a handful of powerful militaries working under the guise of NATO is proof that the transatlantic alliance is still healthy. David Abshire, the U.S. permanent representative to NATO from 1983-1987, writes that the speed with which NATO acted in Libya, as compared to … Read more
Proof That NATO is Still Relevant. And Also Irrelevant.
Clearly NATO played a major role in the ability of the rebel forces to bring down Qaddafi. Though the TNC deserves credit for its efforts on the ground – particularly the apparent coordination between the TNC command in Benghazi and the sleeper rebel cells in Tripoli – the Libyan uprising would have been much shorter and … Read more
Trump: US Should Steal Libyan Oil
Donald Trump apparently thinks that the United States should be taking the oil in Libya as a fee for supporting the rebels. Perhaps, according to Trump, the US should be making deals with rebel organizations promising 50% of their oil revenue in exchange for supporting democracy. You have all these rebels running around… Are … Read more
Was the Libyan Intervention Humanitarian?
Now that Tripoli has fallen to the rebels and Qaddafi is on his way out, many see vindication for the decision to intervene in Libya. Whether the decision intervene in Libya was wise for western governments is up for debate, but it is unquestionably clear that thanks, at least in part, to western aerial power, … Read more
NATO Troops to Enter Libya?
Max Boot reiterates the fact that the fall of Qaddafi is not the end of the problems facing Libya and concludes that the presence of western troops in is essential for the prolonged success of the Libyan revolution: But there remains a real danger of catastrophe, a la post-Taliban Afghanistan and post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, which each succumbed … Read more
