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25/03/2011 | World to Libya: Yes, We Can

Alon Ben-Meir

Just days into a campaign against Muammar al-Qaddafi's ability to launch attacks against rebels in Benghazi, the effort is threatened by a lack of leadership. Alon Ben-Meir argues that the threat of a lunatic Qaddafi with a vendetta against his people and the world is one that the global community cannot afford to test.

 

President Obama has already developed a reputation for tough talk and little action. Worse yet, the United States' cautiousness in the wake of the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, while understandable, threaten to paint a picture of the Obama White House as weak, ineffectual and cowardly.

Just days into a military campaign to cripple Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi's ability to launch attacks against the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, the effort is threatened by obfuscation and lack of leadership.

The same kind of foot-dragging deliberations that escalated the situation by enabling time for Qaddafi's forces to turn the tide against the early advances of the rebels, now threaten to leave Libya in an open-ended civil war. By allowing such a dire situation to fester, the United States is abdicating its responsibility to provide moral leadership.

Instead, the United States should be neither apologetic nor abashed in clearly stating its interests: a removal of Muammar al-Qaddafi from his fiefdom in favor of a stable path toward an Arab- and Libyan-led reconstitution of the Libyan state that gives voice to all the people of Libya, rather than to a single madman in Tripoli.

The early reluctance of the international community to respond to the tragic bloodshed was shameful. But a precedent has been set in all Arab capitals, including Tripoli: If the people demand you step down and are willing to die for it, you must go.

The success of the Arab revolutions of 2011, the fate of the Libyan people and security across North Africa and Europe demand that Qaddafi be removed from power. His survival is not an option.

The hesitance of the United States to intervene — and "nation-build" — in another Middle Eastern nation is understandable. Engagement in Afghanistan was justified but is now languishing, and the U.S. intervention in Iraq was both ill-advised and poorly executed.

Libya, however, is indeed different. Despite claims by analysts that Qaddafi is of minimal concern to the United States' national security, his reign presents a genuine challenge to the White House. If the United States were to allow such a lunatic to hold onto power and slaughter his own people, any notion of the United States playing a stabilizing and positive role in the Middle East will be finished.

It will only serve to solidify a dangerous status quo: a fractured Libya in which an enraged Qaddafi continues his bloodshed against an ill-equipped opposition whom the international coalition refuses to meaningfully support. Allowing this to happen would perpetuate the ever-strengthening view that President Obama is a weak, even cowardly, leader.

That is why the United States could start by pressing for a two-part strategy. First, it needs to unabashedly clarify the goals of the international coalition's current campaign. This campaign is indeed about the much-feared catchphrase of the moment: "regime change." However, unlike Iraq, this effort will be one that serves to support the Libyan people in finishing a job that they started.

This first phase should include clear communications to the Libyan military and officer corps that abandoning Qaddafi now will be the only alternative to being killed, or arrested and tried on war crimes. This will encourage further defection, especially of the high-ranking officers.

Second, an Arab-led coalition should provide military support to oust Qaddafi, and then work alongside a reconstituted Libyan military to combine the various Libyan tribes — whose internal rivalry has been substantially mitigated in recent decades — into a national council. Such a council could then serve to navigate the country through a stable transition toward a system of government that suits the still uniquely tribal character of the country.

An Arab-led coalition could be composed of a variety of Arab nations, including Qatar, which is already contributing to the current campaign. Chief among the coalition, however, should be Libya's reforming North African neighbors, specifically Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.

Providing leading support would re-establish Egypt's leadership in the Arab world and safeguard the stability of its neighborhood. The symbolism of Tunisia's aid would link the Libyan campaign to the revolutionary protests throughout the region, which were sparked when Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire and have lasted through the Libyan rebels' courageous stand against Qaddafi.

Morocco's participation would be based on the reforms it has set in motion and would signal that the longstanding rulers of the region are indeed prepared to engage in activities that provide a greater voice to their people.

The Arab street is fully supportive of removing Qaddafi, and for his neighboring nations, the more-deranged-than-ever Qaddafi continuing at the helm in Libya could significantly jeopardize the hope generated by their recent reforms.

Rather than serve as the next domino in the wave of Arab revolutions in 2011, Qaddafi's hold on power could lead to an even more radical regime in Libya, which has been known to pursue weapons of mass destruction, and will now have the pretext to seek revenge against huge swaths of its own population.

In short, the threat of a lunatic Qaddafi with a vendetta against his people and the world is one that the global community, and in particular Qaddafi's neighbors, cannot afford to test.

The notion that a military campaign could leave Qaddafi in place must be completely discredited. If the youth in Libya — who have so courageously stood up against the much more powerful and ruthless Libyan dictator — fail to oust him because of such Western cowardice, it will serve as a stain on this White House and a cancer on the hope and optimism that the Arab revolutions of 2011 have generated.

The Globalist (Estados Unidos)

 


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