Is NATO making a mistake by maintaining a stalemate between Libyan despot Mohammar Qaddafi and the insurgents seeking to topple his 40-year-old regime? For Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, columnist Stefan Kornelius writes that unless NATO is willing to accept a continuation of Qaddafi’s rule or a fruitless continuation of currect circumstances, it should start setting up ‘protection zones’ across the country – not only to protect civilians, but to restrict Qaddafi’s actions.
For Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Stefan Kornelius writes in part:
NATO and many Arab countries cannot behave as though they are not parties to this war. They have been for some time now. The heads of government: Cameron, Obama, Sarkozy, and even Angela Merkel have declared Qaddafi’s toppling as the goal. Kuwait is contributing lots of money to the cause and even Qatar is providing aircraft. A future with Qaddafi is unimaginable for them and for the rest of the world. Making peace with this man will not be possible. … The White House sends drones and in its analysis, goes so far as to say that this is a “teaching moment”: the European allies should kindly take care of their own backyard – as if overnight, President Obama could shrink from the decades-long responsibilities his country has undertaken. Obama is playing fast and loose with America’s responsibilities and with the hopes of many people.
Three possibilities remain: first, the West could call off the deployment. With that, Qaddafi would stay in power and the slaughter would escalate. No one can wants this. Second, the war could continue to simmer for a while. Qaddafi might run out of weapons and the insurgency could work its way to Tripoli like a cable fire – perhaps or perhaps not. These conditions could last quite a while; and in this cynical game of patience, the West will not persevere. The third option is escalation. NATO needs to set up protection zones for civilians on the ground and thus demonstrate that they can at least partially ensure peace.
The establishing of protection zones would send a strong military and political message – precisely the kind of message Qaddafi’s opponents need in order to obtain credible security from this unpredictable dictator. The U.N. mandate prohibits the occupation of Libya – but protection zones are not zones of occupation. Protection zones are battle-free enclaves that would reduce Qaddafi’s freedom of action and above all, send an unmistakable message: The dictator will not win this war.
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