Friday, March 18, 2011

UNSC backs no-fly zone over Libya

BBC: 'The UN Security Council has backed a no-fly zone over Libya and "all necessary measures" short of an invasion "to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas".

In New York, the 15-member body voted 10-0 in favour, with five abstentions.

Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces have recently retaken several towns seized by rebels in an uprising.

Rebel forces reacted with joy in their Benghazi stronghold but a government spokesman condemned UN "aggression".

Loyalist forces are bearing down on Benghazi, home to a million people.'

7 comments :

Prasad said...

Whatever decision has taken by the U.N. is absolutely correct

Maury said...

The UN passed the resolution, because Obama finally got behind it. In the meantime, the Arab Spring has turned to fall. If we had given the freedom fighters a little support early on, who knows how many dictators could have bitten the dust by now.

Qaddafi isn't without his own bag of tricks. He's declared a ceasefire. The UN will look like bullies if they attack him now.

CMAR II said...

The initiative passed BECAUSE China and Russia knew Qaddaffy would declare a ceasefire and send in the mercenaries anyway. This is precisely the tack taken by the government in Sudan.
Kabuki theater.

Maury said...

Let me ask you this CMAR. Egypt is funneling weapons to Libya with our tacit approval. Why couldn't we funnel a few of these bad boys to the rebels? It would be a lot cheaper and less risky than maintaining a no-fly zone. Not to mention it would give the rebels a fighting chance against Qaddafi. Is it in ANYONE'S interest to keep Qaddafi in power? If not, why is Obama pussy footing around?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin

CMAR II said...

They would need training to use the weapons. That's something that might turn things around in months with official on the ground training by US forces.

You don't need a no-fly zone if the enemy cares about civilian casualties. If they are willing to kill anything that moves, air superiority is all it takes.

If the Obama Administration wasn't going to do anything, they should have said so early. After weeks playing peek-a-boo with the Libyan protesters, they are morally obligated to step in at this point. I'm not really convinced Libya is going to choose on its own any sort of government that the US or Western Europe would want. But what's done is done.

Yahswe Sukuyugi said...

Why this country have to this so.?

Aton said...

So not country do it so?