The aim of the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians by all necessary means. All necessary means can be interpreted broadly to mean a very wide range of options including boots on the ground.
Let’s start by asking some questions:
Who is harming the civilians?
If the answer is Gadaffi’s forces, then this implies defeating and destroying the forces that are harming civilians.
Who gives orders to these forces that are harming civilians? And Who controls and directs these forces that are harming civilians?
These forces act on the order of Gaddafi and sons, if that is so, then Gaddafi himself and his sons have to be dealt with in such a way as to incapacitate them, rendering them incapable of giving orders to harm civilians. Bluntly this means that they must be taken out of the equation.
NATO’s weak performance:
NATO’s intervention from the air has been woefully inadequate Two months down the line NATO has been unable to make a dent in the forces available at Gaddafi’s disposal. This organization is supposed to withstand, deter and defeat an onslaught by Russia and its allies. If the shambolic performance in Libya is any guide then NATO has no chance in hell stopping a determined Russian assault against Western Europe.
The recently announced deployment of Predator drones might help but will not protect civilians in the urban areas of Misrata and Tripoli. I am not a military expert, but this is my gut feeling based on armchair observations.
What are the scenarios?
Given NATO’s impotence and the rebels’ disarray, what options are available now?
My hope is that NATO agrees to undertake a swift military solution, disregarding the objections of Russia and China both of which are not champions of democracy or freedom and they don’t give a toss if Gaddafi kills hundreds of thousands of Libyans. This will require the deployment of an effective force of ground troops to help the rebels topple the regime. I don’t buy the Vietnam or Iraq scenarios, nor do I buy the scare-mongering rumours that Al-Qaeda is in Libya. Al-Qaeda is everywhere. Sleeping cells and sympathisers are in universities in the UK and in other countries.
The Libyan Army which consists mainly of reluctant conscripts will disintegrate quickly if faced with a professional and heavily equipped force. The Libyan people are fed up to the teeth with the Gaddafi’s odious regime and they will not die defending him or his sons. Once he is close to collapse they will abandon him. The higher ranking people will do a Musa Kusa and escape.