Libya Lingers On

Moammar Gadhafi continues to lay siege to Misrata with no end to the war in sight. Where do we go from here?

Warplanes have been dropping bombs on Libya for nearly two months, and the conflict seems no closer to resolution than it did back in March. The New York Times' editorialists call for an escalation in military and financial support for the rebels to prevent them from losing a war of attrition: “Unless NATO, including the United States, gets more serious, Libya’s liberation war could turn into a prolonged, bloody stalemate.” Moammar Gadhafi's forces keep raining shells on Misrata; the death toll, well into the thousands, continues to mount; and refugees are fleeing for the shores of Europe. Western leaders' promise for a quick, decisive intervention appears to have been dashed.

Perhaps NATO could use some of the muscle the U.S. showed in assassinating Osama bin Laden to help the rebels defeat Gadhafi, suggests Paul Wolfowitz in Newsweek. “For some reason, the president has so far held back from other decisions that would involve no risk to American lives but that could save the lives of Libyans whom we have committed to protect – like recognizing the provisional government in Benghazi, providing them with military assistance, shutting down the propaganda broadcasts of the Gadhafi regime,” writes Wolfowitz. Granted, Wolfowitz was a chief architect of the Iraq War, so his record on foreign intervention isn't stellar. But he's not wrong saying matters as they stand now only serve to prolong Gadhafi's bloodthirsty regime.

So why doesn't NATO just assassinate Gadhafi like bin Laden and get it over with? “As vile as he may be, he is a sitting head of state engaged in a civil war,” writes Eric Morse, a former diplomat, in a heartily recommended Ottawa Citizen column. And despite heads of state calling for regime change since the passage of Resolution 1973, that UN mandate only allows for limited protection of civilians. “Bin Laden is another matter. He held no office and led no state. He was what an earlier age freely called 'outlaw' and has been dealt with in that fashion,” says Morse. And so Gadhafi's subjects wait for their insane but formally protected leader to either come to his senses or die a legal death.