Flying Libya's Friendly Skies

After a week of waiting for the inevitable invitation, UN Security Council nations, led by European nations and the U.S., have finally been asked by the Arab League to establish a no-fly zone over Libya.  Rebel forces who have courageously taken, lost, and retaken strategic cities throughout Eastern Libya, have been hampered consistently by Gaddafi's air strikes.  Air superiority is essential to any eventual military victory, and Gaddafi's ability to pin down rebels and bomb their weapons depots was perhaps the only remaining obstacle to a successful rebel march on Tripoli and removal of Qaddafi from his decades long dictatorship.

Photo by Sky News

The UN and the Obama Administration have received ample criticism for, in the view of some, waiting far too long to intervene directly in the struggle between Libya's rebels and the Qaddafi government.  The rebels who led the revolution against one of the world's most ruthless dictators have been driven back and are in real danger of defeat if Qaddafi continues air strikes with impunity on rebel positions.  Some argue that the U.S. should have immediately sent aid to the rebels at the beginning of the revolutionary conflict, and imposed a no-fly zone weeks ago.  However, lessons learned from the removals of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban came into play in the decision to wait for a coalition in support of intervention.  An unusual coalition was needed; not simply a coalition of our usually reliable allies, but a coalition placing the UN Security Council nations and Arab League nations on the same side, supporting the rebel cause with united desire to see Qaddafi removed and the Libyan people choose new leadership.

The Arab League has reliable intelligence sources within Libya's rebel forces, and according to those sources, the situation is approaching desperation almost entirely due to Gaddafi's air superiority across the nation.  Successful ground wars depend on air support, and the rebels' ground war is stalling.  Having U.S. and Arab nation fighters working together to enforce the no-fly zone offers new opportunities for cooperation, respect, and achievement between vastly different cultures.  The U.S. could have intervened unilaterally weeks ago, and the move would have been applauded in America and in a handful of other allied nations.  However, the Arab world would have objected to our exercise of military prowess over a fellow Arab leader, even one as universally despised as Qaddafi.  Establishing a no-fly zone jointly with Arab partners is a good move militarily and diplomatically.

U.S. F-22s are already in position to begin operations once the coalition is assembled, and the days of Gaddafi's terrorism against his own people and the world, are numbered.  The world should expect desperate acts from Qaddafi in the final days of his dictatorial rule.  Whatever he has stockpiled, he will use.  He knows all too well that his fate will be no different than Saddam's if captured and tried by his own people.  He is unlikely to let that happen.  The no-fly zone will not only end aerial bombardments of rebel bases and supply lines, it will also end the possibility of Qaddafi escaping Libyan justice by air.  The noose is tightening, and a truly international coalition will soon create friendly skies over Libya for the first time in 40 years.  A man who funded and encouraged terror in the skies, including over Scotland, will soon find his world crashing down upon him from above once more.