U.N. Finally Approves Attack on Kadafi

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright March 17, 2011
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               Meeting behind closed doors in the U.N. Security Council, President Barack Obama has just received the green light to stop Col. Moammar Kadafi’s imminent attack on Libya’s eastern Mediterranean rebel stronghold of Benghazi.  Two U.S. warships, the USS Ponce and USS Kearsage, carrying 800 marines with full medical facilities, are in the Mediterranean near the Libyan coast.  Close behind and within striking distance, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise is now poised to launch the same kind of attack on Libyan forces that occurred Jan. 17 1991 during the first Gulf War, where the U.S. military decimated the Iraqi army en route from Kuwait back to Baghdad.  Kadafi has fallen into the U.S. trap, amassing his military along the coastal supply line heading to the port city of Benghazi where Kadafi expects to wage a life-or-death battle to regain his iron grip over Libya.

            Kadafi’s bluster was seen today on Libyan radio warning residents of Benghazi that his forces, estimated some 60 miles away, would attack by nightfall.  “We will come zenga, zenga.  House by house, room by room,” warning residents to lay down their arms or face certain annihilation.  “It’s over.  The issue has been decided,” said Kadafi, promising to show mercy to rebels who lay down their arms.  “We are coming tonight . . . We will have no mercy and no pity with them,” reflecting U.N. concerns that Kadafi plans a genocide of rebel forces.  Today’s U.N. Security Council resolution gives the U.S. and Western allies the approval to implement a “no-fly zone” and to use any and all measures to protect the civilian population.  Obama kept his powder dry hoping to draw Kadafi’s forces into a vulnerable trap, where the U.S. navy air forces can wipeout his military personnel and heavy equipment.

            When the Arab League voted to support a “no-fly zone” over Libya March 12, Kadafi was officially isolated, getting no support from other Muslim countries.  Arab League President Amr Mussa recalls Kadafi’s support of the late Serbian tyrant Slobodan Milocevic in his genocide against Muslim ethnic Albanians, prompting former President Bill Clinton to intervene militarily in 1998.  “We are very concerned about the situation in Libya and the violence that is being perpetrated by the Kadafi regime against its people,” said White House spokesman James Carney, hinting at imminent military action.  Given the U.N. Security Council resolution, U.S. forces know they are subject to immediate attack in the Mediterranean by Kadafi.  While the international effort to stop Kadafi seems delayed, allowing Kadafi to amass his troops and equipment on the highway to Benghazi is the perfect trap.

            Once called a “Mad Dog of the Middle East” by the late President Ronald Reagan, Kadafi has been involved in terrorism during most of his 42-reign in Libya.  He anointed himself after his military coup in 1969 as leader of the Arabs, inspired by his mentor the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the general who liberated Egypt from Britain in the Suez Canal in 1952.  When Kadafi bombed a Berlin nightclub April 14, 1986 frequented by U.S. servicemen, it took Reagan only 10 days to bomb Kadafi’s Tripoli headquarters.  Two-and-half-years later, Kadafi bombed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 270 crew and passengers. Kadafi gave Pan Am Flight 103 bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi a hero’s welcome Aug. 20, 2009, when he was released from British prison on medical grounds.  Like Iraq’s late Saddam Hussein, Kadafi remains North Africa’s most despised tyrant.

            Despite the massive ongoing nuclear damage from Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami, oil prices rose today on world commodity exchanges anticipating the imminent attack on Libya.  “Any foreign military act against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea to danger and civilian (facilities) will become targets of Libya’s counter-attack,” said the military statement, requiring a forceful U.S. attack on Kadafi’s air force and amassed ground forces.  Despite uncertainties of a post-Kadafi government, the U.S. has decided he’s now a threat to U.S. national security—unwilling to wait until the next Pan Am 103.  Signaling imminent U.S. military action, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Tunisian TV that the region can no longer tolerate tyrants like Kadafi.  Given Kadafi’s march on Benghazi, the U.S. must act quickly to save the Libyan revolution.

            Looking at the big picture, Kadafi has long overstayed his welcome in North Africa.  Non-violent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt indicate that the time is right for some progressive change in the region.  Kadafi remains an obstacle to North Africa’s forward progress toward eventual representative government.  While the U.S. remains  mired in Afghanistan and Iraq, it promised the Security Council there would be no protracted occupation in Libya.  U.S. forces have a clear and precise mission to de-fang Kadafi’s military and drive him into exile.  Libya’s rebel government promises to work closely with the U.N. Security Council to create a more responsive government.  While there no consensus on Security Council, Russia, China and Germany are expected abstain from any vetoes.  All know that they can’t pass up a golden opportunity to free the region from a dangerous troublemaker.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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