Libya Mission Creeps
Well, now Britain and France are sending "military advisers" to Benghazi to help the rebels on the ground, while NATO meditates upon its very strange, wholly unexpected discovery that air power doesn't seem to be sufficient to achieve a military objective.
What these military advisors will be doing is unclear:
Mr Hague said the Army officers would help prevent attacks on civilians, in line with the United Nations Security Council resolution authorising military action against Col Gaddafi's forces.
However, the officers will not be involved in training or arming the opposition's fighting forces and have nothing to do with the planing or execution of NTC military operations, Mr Hague said.
One might wonder exactly how they are going to help prevent attacks on civilians without training or arming the opposition's fighting forces. They are being sent, apparently, in a "mentoring" role. So they're going to chair a round-table, maybe? Pass out copies of Who Moved My Cheese?
Perhaps they're going to stand there and explain to Gaddafi's forces--who are attacking Benghazi with snipers and rockets--that they are mentors from the British government, and that in their professional view as mentors, the attacks on civilians really should stop.
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Mar '11
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris, in charge of the RAF Bomber Command during WWII, also thought that bombing Germany would be sufficient to end the war without any heavy engagements of ground forces. He was, of course, wrong. Apparently the people managing this Libya thing, among their other deficits, also know no history.
Dec '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
And what was worse was that the U.S. 8th Air Force clung to the same notions and when the RAF tried to suggest other methods, they were ignored. Even after the combined allied command gained air superiority, it still required ground forces to take and capture enemy held positions. Air power is not decisive. It's stregnth lies in its versatility.
Early reports this week reveal that NATO is running out of ammunition. If true, this will demonstrate that NATO is in fact a paper tiger. No ammunition, no plan, no leadership -- the perfect trifecta in the "Charlie Foxtrot" sense.
Mar '11
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
If France and Britain were Communist countries, I would say this plan was just a creative way to purge their officer corps. I'm dumbfounded that Sarkozy and Cameron are this stupid. They're sending officers to their deaths.
Jan '11
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
They really ought to try a surge of diplomacy. If it's good enough for the Taliban . . .
Dec '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
I really feel for the soldiers on the ground there. I can only imagine what its like risking your life to implement a "plan" that everyone from the grunts to the president is half-hearted piece of pure political theater guaranteed to be abandoned at the first convenient opportunity.
May '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
The Brits are there to show the rebels how to evacuate. If that doesn't work the French are there to show them how to surrender.
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
The French haven't been doing a lot of surrendering lately. I'm not sure we're on solid ground mocking them just as we're announcing it's time to chat with the Taliban.
May '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
No amount of ineptitude from the Obama Administration is going to change French military history.
But this incursion into Libya makes no sense. We only know the rebels are anti-Ghaddafi. That's not a reason to get involved. When Islamic forces battle each other you let them kill each other, not choose sides.
Dec '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
The French haven't been doing a lot of surrendering lately. I'm not sure we're on solid ground mocking them just as we're announcing it's time to chat with the Taliban. · Apr 20 at 5:30am
Further information regarding additional support.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110420/ap_on_re_eu/libya_diplomacy
Dec '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
Drat. I thought we were going to vote.
Who do YOU think is the biggest Libya Mission Creep? GQK(h)adaf(f)i? Obama? Cameron? Sarkozy? NATO? The UN? . . .
Nov '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
At least it's creeping in the right direction. Mr. Sarkozy deserves all the praise we can muster.
May '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
The French haven't been doing a lot of surrendering lately. I'm not sure we're on solid ground mocking them just as we're announcing it's time to chat with the Taliban. · Apr 20 at 5:30am
Actually, over history as a whole, the French have done a great deal more winning than surrendering. Just remember that France had a distinct shortage of male population during the mid-20th century precisely because they fought the Great War so fiercely. While we are at it, the Italians fought with tremendous courage and flair when they had a cause worth fighting for.
And if you recall, it took the Brits to remind the West that it wasn't necessary to lose all the time. The landing from San Carlos Water, and the yomp across East Falkland were far from trivial in terms of winning the Cold War.
May '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
So much foofarah over a scrap of paper. The UN resolution, which everyone involved is winking at and ignoring, except when rubber meets the road, they hide behind it.
International Law is a damaging idea when people start talking about it as anything more than an idea.
Jul '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
Oh, what the heck, we're swimming in cash. Let's toss in a dozen brigades, oust the Mad Hatter and get down to the business of nation building.
Ten years from now, Libya will be a fine, upstanding democracy, just like, um, Afghanistan.
Dec '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
NATO has admitted that it can't take decisive action to fulfill its mission to protect civilians... because to do so might violate its mission to protect civilians:
"The Western military alliance's pilots also destroyed mobile rocket launchers belonging to Muammar Gaddafi's forces that were firing on the city on Monday night, van Uhm said.
"'But there is a limit to what can be achieved with airpower to stop fighting in a city. We are taking every precaution to avoid causing civilian casualties by our own air operations.'
...
"NATO's senior military officer, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, told a briefing in Rome that NATO strikes had done 'quite significant damage' to Gaddafi's heavy weaponry, but what he had left was 'still considerable.'
"'Unfortunately, we still have not succeeded in neutralizing the other offensive capacity of Gaddafi, which comes from his use of weapons which are less powerful but are equally destructive and lethal, like mortars and rockets.
"'Gaddafi is able to move them around inside the cities, where it is much more difficult to locate them and neutralize them without doing damage. This is the difficulty that the international community is debating at the moment.'"
May '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola? Good Lord, it's a comic opera. I thought the Italian navy was only visible through glass-bottomed boats. Their army tried to invade France once, but their truck broke down.
Whatta mistaka to maka. This isn't a Diplomacy game, people. Italy can't just take over Libya in two moves.
Dec '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
This just in: 'Restrepo' Co-Director Killed in Libya.
Documentarian Tim Hetherington, co-director of the Oscar-nominated Restrepo, was killed Wednesday in Misrata, Libya, according to multiple reports.
our editor recommendsRestrepo -- Film Review
Filmmakers Risked Their Lives to Shoot DGA-Nominated 'Restrepo'
He had been documenting a fight between Muammar Gaddafi's forces and Libyan rebels.
Getty photographer Chris Hondros suffered a severe brain injury in the attack and is in extremely critical condition, reports the New York Times. Three other journalists were injured.
Jul '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
Stuart Creque: This just in: 'Restrepo' Co-Director Killed in Libya.
Documentarian Tim Hetherington, co-director of the Oscar-nominated Restrepo, was killed Wednesday in Misrata, Libya, according to multiple reports.
our editor recommendsRestrepo -- Film Review
Filmmakers Risked Their Lives to Shoot DGA-Nominated 'Restrepo'
He had been documenting a fight between Muammar Gaddafi's forces and Libyan rebels.
Getty photographer Chris Hondros suffered a severe brain injury in the attack and is in extremely critical condition, reports the New York Times. Three other journalists were injured. · Apr 20 at 11:34am
What sad news. Restrepo is one of the most important documentaries ever filmed. If the American people would tune out American Idol or Jersey Shore just long enough to watch Restrepo, they would be marching in the streets to demand an end to our doomed effort to drag Afghanistan out of the 7th Century.
Feb '11
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
It would seem that "mission creep" is built in to the UN R2P.
Jul '10
Re: Libya Mission Creeps
To judge from the job description, I hope they are flying in big steel desks for these military bureaucrats to sit behind. And plenty of official forms.