Ghaddafi on his way out?
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)
President Obama has not made friends with the Right or the Left on dealing with Ghaddafi and the ongoing conflict in Libya. There has been a good deal of room for second guessing of the American strategy in Libya: much analysis has focused on the twin notion that one should go big or not go in at all. Many on the left say that this is an ongoing civil war in Libya that nations outside of Libya should not be involved in. Critics on both the left and right have also argued that if action were to be taken, that it should have been faster, bigger and earlier without allowing the conflict to come to a stalemate.
But the latest reports are certainly a good sign:
Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi may be preparing to flee the country within days, according to NBC News.
U.S. officials told NBC that intelligence reports suggest Gaddafi is in the process of making plans to evacuate from Libya with his family. The reports indicate he may be headed to Tunisia, where it is possible he will be granted exile.
At least seven loud blasts were heard in Tripoli early Friday morning as bombs fell in the vicinity of Gaddafi’s main headquarters of Bab al-Aziziya.
On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the Libyan leader’s days appeared to be numbered. “Gaddafi’s forces are weakened,” he said.
Chris Weigant at Business Insider has a pretty good rundown of the situation:
While the rebel advance has slowed in Brega, though, it has sped up noticeably in Libya’s west. The battle map shows this section of the country in detail. The ultimate objective, of course, is Tripoli. To Tripoli’s east is the second rebel-held area, around the city of Misrata (rebel-held areas are red on the map, loyalist-held areas are in green). The battle for the city of Misrata was the rebels’ first real victory in this civil war, and in recent weeks the frontlines have moved out from the city itself to the surrounding towns. The rebels have expanded their perimeter to the point that loyalists cannot shell Misrata any more, because they’ve been pushed back out of range. Moving southwards along the coast, the rebels took Tarwerga, and today reports are coming in that the rebels have taken Al Heisha (which, unfortunately is not on the map, but seems to be further down the road to Sirte than Tarwerga). In addition to this, the rebels are also pushing west from Misrata, moving the fight along the coast to the city of Zlitan.
In the westernmost part of the country, the rebels have had their biggest successes since securing Misrata. Starting from the border, the rebels have taken town after town until they now control the entire chain of the Nafusa Mountains. A few weeks ago, they took the town of Zintan, and as you can see on the battle map, they have quickly advanced from there in two separate directions.
The rebels are trying to take the words “the noose is tightening around Ghaddafi” in quite literal fashion. It seems obvious that the rebels are attempting to encircle Tripoli, and due to the fact that there just aren’t a lot of roads in or out, this objective may actually soon be within their grasp.
Of course, getting rid of Ghaddafi doesn’t automatically mean that all will be well in Libya. It is entirely possible that there will be retributions against Ghaddafi allies (there are reports that this has already been happening), and the future of a post-Ghaddafi Libya is anything but clear.
What is certainly clear, however, is that had Ghaddafi been allowed to operate without obstruction, mass killings of rebels would almost certainly have resulted. It’s up to one’s individual conscience to decide if foreign military intervention is still the morally less defensible choice in this sort of situation. I would like to believe that in hindsight, any serious progressive would have encouraged Bill Clinton to intervene militarily in Rwanda to prevent that massacre.
If the operation in Libya is successful in removing Ghaddafi while preventing mass recriminatory killings, it will have been a victory not only for Libya and for the Arab Spring, but also for the Obama Administration’s foreign policy.
Progressivism is ultimately not about following a preset ideology, but about doing what works to make life better for the greatest number of people. If the Obama Administration succeeds in doing that in Libya, it will have been a truly praiseworthy result. Time will tell.
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