Obama Tries to Patch Rift on Libya Role as Strikes Go On

[MannyGoldstein]

Source: The NY Times

WASHINGTON — Explosions rocked Tripoli on Tuesday in a fourth day of airstrikes, but forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi showed no signs of ending their sieges of rebel-held cities, as the Security Council has demanded, while President Obama spoke on Tuesday with the French and British leaders in an effort to defuse a disagreement among the allies over how to manage the military action against Libya.

...

Divisions persisted among the allies on Tuesday over how the campaign should continue and under whose command, though the NATO countries seemed to be making progress on an arrangement that would retain a substantial role for NATO while addressing French concerns about putting the military alliance fully in charge.

“What we’re saying right now is that NATO has a key role to play here,” Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Speaking to reporters in San Salvador on Tuesday, Mr. Obama said “I have absolutely no doubt” that the allies will agree on a plan to transfer control from the United States to the international coalition.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/africa/23libya.html?_r=1&hp

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The great unraveling has begun.

[Catherina]

1. I didn't expect the unraveling to start so soon.

Make sure you have your seat belt on. This is going to be bumpy and unpleasant.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Me neither

Ill-advised I've come to expect. Substantially unplanned is a new and ugly surprise.

[ReggieVeggie]

4. especially here at DU

:-(

[joshcryer]

6. What unraveling here at DU? The pro-Libyans have stood strong.

:hi:

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

5. And have a towel handy...

... if I didn't know better, I would have thought Doug Adams wrote that piece, it seems like no one in the "coalition" seems to want to take any credit for starting nor continuing the violence, and me thinks that was part of the planning that went into this, ie...why they waited so long.

[joshcryer]

7. Split on Libya averted as Nato given military control

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/22/us-nato-libya-operation-infighting">Split on Libya averted as Nato given military control
Bosnia, which came to symbolise Europe's failure to prevent bloodshed on its doorstep , could provide a model for a new era as the world confronts Muammar Gaddafi.

Diplomatic sources say that a structure which has kept the peace in Bosnia could be replicated as the international community enforces the no-fly zone over Libya.

Diplomats in Brussels have become embroiled in bitter exchanges in recent days as they try to establish a command structure for the Libyan operation that would meet Barack Obama's demand to relieve Washington of operational control.

The diplomats are now looking to Bosnia which was famously failed by the European Union in the mid 1990s. The EU finally redeemed itself when it assumed command from Nato of the peace keeping operation in Bosnia in 2004. The EU force, known as Eufor, has been in the lead ever since but is able to draw on Nato assets when needed.

Should probably not bump an outdated report without providing information about why it is wrong.

[sasha031]

3. it began before it started

I am just so sick of wars....