Libyan War Becomes an Unnecessary Stalemate

Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal-Pioneer               

Barack Obama for far too long seemed unable to muster the effort to confront Moammar Gadhafi, despite calling for the removal of the tyrant.

Only when faced with an imminent victory by Gadhafi’s forces, and prodded by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, did Obama finally act – and even then, not before receiving the go-ahead from the UN Security Council, and only because it was framed as a humanitarian mission.

Strange how western war aims have come full circle since the Second World War. Back then, humanitarian aims were subordinate to military ones, and so nothing was done to save people from Hitler’s death camps. Today, it’s the reverse.

But Obama is a reluctant warrior. From the moment the campaign began, he has made it clear he wants it over as soon as possible – whether Gadhafi and his henchmen are overthrown or not.

American power, for Obama, is almost an embarrassment, and its use a necessary evil, to be employed sparingly – even against a mentally unhinged tyrant who has committed acts of terrorism around the world, including against Americans, and turned his own country into a vast prison camp.

Gaddafi will not step aside voluntarily, despite recent defections by top aides.

Nor is he likely to be driven anytime soon from his Tripoli base, where he has surrounded himself with highly-paid fighters and tribal kinsmen who remain fiercely loyal, U.S. officials have told the Washington Post.

Without massive amounts of aid, the rebels will not dethrone him.

Since he runs a kleptocracy, and considers Libya his personal property, he wants to hand over “ownership” to his sons.

Gadhafi would also, as soon as the pressure from the NATO coalition eased, resume his slaughter of his opponents in Libya.

So if Gadhafi survives, ruling a rump state in western Libya, he would certainly try to retaliate, using his tried and true method – terrorism.

He is said to have chemical weapons and perhaps other unconventional tools.

Such a deadlock could also dramatically expand the financial and military commitments by the United States and allied countries that have intervened in the conflict.

This impasse could easily have been avoided, had the president thrown his weight behind the opposition to Gadhafi in the first weeks of the uprising.

It’s impossible to separate the humanitarian objective from the political one, as Obama has tried to do. We’ve come a long way from the “unconditional surrender” days of the Second World War.