Libya's Painful Choices

The continued activities of NATO in the skies over Libya and the establishment of the no-fly zone based on the U.N. Security Council resolution makes obvious that Libya is subject to international scrutiny, in terms of the apparent slowdown of NATO strikes against the forces of Gadhafi, and in the lack of coordination with the Libyan rebels, to the point of the martyrdom of many rebels as a result of friendly fire, the fire of NATO forces.

There are growing doubts among Libyan citizens, since they have seen the U.S. withdraw from the operation for reasons that are not at all clear. This is in addition to the conflicting political statements the U.S. has cooked up, and the inconsistency of the response to the Libyan problem as a whole.

The burden of the liberation of Libya from Gadhafi and his family is beyond the combat capability of the rebels, who have armed and mobilized in a hurry and whose weapons are small and modest in comparison with those of the Gadhafi regime’s forces, which are armed to the teeth.

The rebels remain in their fight with the Gadhafi forces in a continual stream of attacks and retreats as the rebels continue to fight, while the rest of Libya continues to be prisoners of Gadhafi. The rebels must free city after city until they succeed in the operation against Gadhafi’s forces.

The rebels are taking control of the catastrophe that has come upon the Libyans and perhaps there will come a time when the crimes committed by Gadhafi’s forces in cities like Zawaiya, Misurata and Ajdabiya will be discovered, such as the slaughter of civilians in the human shields that Gadhafi’s forces are using.

Ironically, some international actors have offered political solutions to solve the rebels’ problem such as signing a ceasefire or the peace treaty put forward by Gadhafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, who is just another version of his father, and who has threatened and vowed to kill protestors.

These policy options still rear their ugly heads over the Libyan people and the rebels every day either by means of a U.N. envoy, or an envoy from some African nation, or Turkey. This is strange since the rebels and the Libyan people have clearly and simply stated their opinion: the war will end when Gadhafi and his family step down from power and are exiled from Libya.

However, it appears that the world as a whole has been blind to the call of the rebels and all of the Libyan people for the departure of the colonel and for the end to his abuses. Libya is surrounded by difficult choices.