Finishing What We Started

As NATO extends its operation over Libya for another 90 days one cannot help but to ponder when the NATO member states will focus on going after Gaddafi, and seize the first chance they get to neither kill him or capture him to prevent further bloodshed being inflicted by his command.

When Colonel Gaddafi failed to adhere to the International Community and openly lied about not killing civilians as he stepped up his assault on Benghazi the United Nations passed Resolution 1970 and 1973 giving coalition member states the authority to enforce a no fly zone over Libya, to protect its citizens who were being killed by indiscriminate strafing attacks by the Libyan Air Force on Gaddafi's orders, on the eve of the implementation of this no fly zone David Cameron stated quote;

"Tonight, British forces are in action over Libya. They are part of an international coalition that has come together to enforce the will of the United Nations and to support the Libyan people.

We have all seen the appalling brutality that Colonel Gaddafi has meted out against his own people. And far from introducing the ceasefire he spoke about, he has actually stepped up the attacks and the brutality that we can all see.

So what we are doing is necessary, it is legal, and it is right."

It has been clear from the beginning of this campaign that Gaddafi is essentially the problem, and since he clearly has no hope of coming out of all of this with control of a stable Libya he should be promptly removed from the scene rather than be left to prolong the conflict, the NATO countries are already engaged with him and his army and are actively backing the rebel forces from eastern Libya (known locally as Free Libya).

His ramblings over fighting to the death is an evident blot on the coalitions current mission, which is protecting the Libyan people from the depraved forces of which Gaddafi is the commander and chief, this should make him a primary target as his capture or death will be a major strategic victory for the coalition and the rebels.

The U.K. has deployed a handful of AH-64 Apache attack helicopters in support of rebels, they however have come too late to be of any use to these rebel fighters in their prolonged and bloody struggle against Gaddafi's loyalists forces for control over the port city of Misrata, they have proven that while they may be no Northern Alliance they are determined to fight and bleed in a bid to bring an end to Gaddafi's 42 year reign.

A Special Forces incursion similar to the one that took out Bin Laden could be employed to neither capture him or kill him, if the coalition achieved neither it is arguable that his loyalist forces, realizing it really is the end will neither give up or (more likely given these thugs sadistic record) come straight onto the rebels playing field in an unorganized series of sporadic attacks motivated by their fury, and quickly fall apart as a result of having no clear objective and then subsequently dry up in Libya's state transition.

After the United States led military coalition's main operation to expel the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait in the 1991 Persian Gulf War the oppressed Shia majority in southern Iraq started an uprising against Saddam Hussein's brutal sectarian Baathist rule, it was often stated after this uprising was brutally crushed (with over 100,000 Shia's slaughtered by the Iraqi Army) that they had been started under the impression that the United States military (who had only weeks before been raining bombs on their cities) would aid them in their bloody struggle against Saddam, this statement by then president George H.W. Bush is often said to be the incitement for such an uprising;

"There is another way for the bloodshed to stop: And that is, for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside and then comply with the United Nations' resolutions and rejoin the family of peace-loving nations."

While this author does not believe that this was Bush's intention there is a clear comparison to be seen here, in this case those Iraqis were slaughtered by Republican Guard loyalists who utilized Iraqi helicopters (that weren't prohibited by the coalitions ban on Iraqi aircraft - as they were allowed on the basis of transporting necessities which in turn couldn't be brought by road as a result of the havoc wrecked on the national infrastructure) in rapidly and violently crushing the uprising. In Libya coalition fighter jets are already in the air in support of the Libyan rebels and have already engaged Gaddafi's forces on numerous occasions, to sit it out now and give Gaddafi's forces a chance to re-mobilize substantial means (as the Republican Guard did in similar circumstances) to once again kill civilians would be extremely naive, short sighted and would be a major stigma on the UN and NATO's record.