“The 22-member Arab League strongly condemned Gaddafi’s assaults on Libyan civilians in its March 12 resolution calling for an international enforcement of a no-fly zone. It was the first time the league had called for military action against one of its members, and that resolution became the basis for the U.N. Security Council resolution last Thursday that authorized the use of force against Gaddafi.
Yet, it remains politically difficult for many Arab states to use force against another Muslim country or to publicly side with Western powers in an attack on another Arab leader — even one as unpopular in the Arab world as Gaddafi, said Clifford May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank.
“On the one hand, they find Gaddafi a menace and an embarrassment,” May said, “and on the other hand, some are afraid that the same arguments being used to take down Gaddafi could be used against their own regimes.”
warrickj@washpost.com”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-allies-seek-to-maintain-arab-support-for-military-intervention-in-libya/2011/03/21/AB35Go9_story.html?hpid=z3
“The international military coalition focused Monday on extending the no-fly zone to al-Brega, Misrata and then to Tripoli, a distance of about 1,000 kilometers (more than 600 miles).
The Spanish parliament Tuesday approved Spanish military participation in the international coalition operating in Libya. Canadian and Belgian forces joined coalition forces Monday, he said, and aircraft carriers from Italy and France have added "significant capability" in the region.
The United Arab Emirates had been prepared to send two squadrons to participate in the international effort, said retired Maj. Gen. Khaled Abdullah Al-Buainnain -- the former commander of the Emirates' air force and air defense.
However, he said, those plans have changed due to criticism by the United States and the European Union of the Gulf Cooperation Council's deployment of troops to help the monarchy stabilize Bahrain.
The UAE has chosen not to take a military role in Libya until Washington and the European Union clarify their position on the use of troops in Bahrain, but it will contribute to the humanitarian effort in Libya, Al-Buainnain said.
About 80 sorties were flown Monday -- more than half of them by air forces representing countries other than the United States, Ham said.
But support for the attacks was not universal. The Russian government said the mission has killed innocent civilians and urged more caution. India, China and Venezuela have also spoken out against the airstrikes.”
http://us.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/22/libya.civil.war/index.html?hpt=T1
Cassi Creek:
We’ve no way out of this debacle but to pick up our toys and bring our troops home. The Arab League wants as no fly zone with no collateral damage, no civilian injuries, and no demonstration that the various Arab air forces are abjectly and essentially impotent in any contest against Western air forces. They want our help in deposing a member they no longer value but don’t want us to demonstrate that their armies and navies are for the most part, primarily former client states of the USSR using leftover Soviet and Soviet-era hardware and tactics. While they can buy GPS units and night vision units on the weapons and other markets now, the hardware available to them is mostly 1st generation 20 years or more outdated.
Their largest problems concerning ground troops are the same problems that our “training units” are faced with in Iraq and Afghanistan today. There is pronounced illiteracy among the recruit pool. There is the problem of Muslim troops killing other Muslim troops. There is the failure to instill chains of authority and chains of command, problems with bribery, misappropriation of weapons and everything else to trade or sell on the black market, and the conflict between Sunni and Shia. The concept of maintenance as a necessity is alien. So is the concept of continual training. Trainees fail to remain at their duty posts, with their units during and after training. Family ties, tribal loyalties, and other cultural factors limit the ability of Western trainers to bring about any sort of realistic upgrade to local armies and navies.
We thought we would get what we wanted, a short-live NATO coalition that we could hand off to Arab forces so that they would begin to carry the reality of regime change and conflict in their own region. We were wrong. I doubt we will see any Arab air forces actually strike Libyan aircraft or ground force. The myth of cooperation between the West and the Arabs remains a myth.
The Arab League got what it asked for, a no fly zone implemented and enforced by Western armies, navies, and air forces. That they failed to understand what they were asking for is both a technical and cultural problem. Next time they want us to implement a regime change for them; we should ignore the request and suggest that what they want is best obtained by magical thinking and rubbing a brass lamp repeatedly.
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