Libya:NATO’s weakness in Libya and accidental heroes of anti-Gaddafi op

Laaska News  Sept. 24,2011
Mikhail Berestov

Photo: AFP   

NATO’s operation in Libya has revealed the alliance’s weakness, says the article “NATO’s military impotence: victory that became a defeat” by Russian political analyst Alexander Khramchikhin. He sees Western involvement into the conflict inexplicable and notes that the alliance’s members failed to act collectively again.

The campaign showed that NATO members are even more uncoordinated than they were in Yugoslavia in 1999. The main burden of the Unified Protector op was on the UK and France, barely supported by Canada and Belgium. Other NATO countries had symbolic parts to play while the US simply pulled out of the operation.  Still, NATO Air Forces depleted their bombs and missiles in this limited and not-so dangerous campaign. They simply were not ready for a war, Alexander Khramchikhin told the VoR:

“If we look at officially listed military potential of NATO’s European members, as the US was not involved, they should have shattered Gaddafi in a month or faster taking into account support from the rebels. But the war still goes on for more than 5 months. The rebels managed to seize Tripoli with the help of NATO but they don’t control the entire country. So, ground operation was out of question. European armies appeared fully incapable of fighting. (end)

The expert’s conclusions coincide with a report by The Royal United Services  Accidental heroes: the UK and France in Libya War. It says that toppling Gaddafi was possible only due to improvisation, innovation and good luck plus military skill. However the Royal Air Forces have ran out of missiles and the Navy had to suspend several operations. The US walked out at early stages shifting responsibility to France and the UK. Alexander Khramchikhin believes that America’s decision was caused by unwillingness to join its third campaign

“The US has enough of two Islamic wars to get into the third one and bury its reputation among Muslims. America wanted to frame Europe   and show its weakness.”

The report emphasizes an important role of security services from the UK, France, Italy, Bulgaria and Arab countries – Egypt Jordan, Qatar and the UAE who trained the rebels and dealt with intelligence and communication.

Alexander Khramchikhin  also noted their contribution to the fall of Tripoli.  Thus NATO and its allies followed already approved tactics that they used in the Balkans and in Iraq. While the Arab world is unstable NATO may have to interfere again. Alexander Khramchikhin is skeptical about this:

“The US had more grounds to interfere into Syrian business. While Libya had a civil war where the West surprisingly took sides, Syria is seeing a violent  suppression of peaceful protesters. However, NATO repeatedly stated that the interference in impossible, simply because Syria still has a strong army controlled by Assad. So I see zero reasons for another operation. By the way, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated already in June that “Shaky Libya campaign shows NATO’s weaknesses” .
Sep 23

 VOR.
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