Anyone who doubts the international decision to protect civilians in Libya must explain what would have happened without the United Nations resolution and coalition airstrikes.
There is no confusion about what was about to happen on March 19 and 20: Moammar Gadhafi’s tanks and artillery had already begun a final assault on Benghazi and environs, Libya’s second-largest city and home to more than 700,000 residents. Coalition forces struck, as the armored convoy came to within 20 miles of the city; some of the colonel’s tanks already had begun shelling residential areas, a war crime in and of itself.
Thanks to the last-ditch intervention from the air, those tanks, artillery pieces and armored vehicles are now rubble in the sand, for all to see — clear, stark evidence of a massacre very narrowly averted.
Waiting for a stronger coalition, re-drafting words in UN resolutions, defining all of the ground rules for the aerial intervention, addressing the nation would all have possibly been useful, but by then Benghazi and its population would have been the rubble, not Gadhafi’s tank column.
The international community, especially the U.S. and President Barack Obama, would have been portrayed as weak, indecisive, uncaring. U.S. clout around the world would have been undermined; “the pitiful, helpless giant” label would have been pinned on America once again. For it is, in the end, only the American military which had the capacity to protect in time, with decisive strength.
Massacres of civilians cannot always be prevented, but in this case, Col. Gadhafi made the task easier by disbelieving American and international will and speed to stop his murderous convoy in time.
Gadhafi and his sons declared that the “cockroaches” of the opposition must be crushed, telegraphing exactly what he had in mind. Just before the Hutu leaders launched the mass killing of civilians in Rwanda, they called for the extermination of the Tutsi “cockroaches.” But, the world looked away, and the UN and U.S. still bear that stain.
The coalition action over Libya has averted heavy civilian bloodshed in Benghazi and other cities and now can protect Libyan civilians until Gadhafi’s forces stand down and aid can flow in an unfettered manner to the people of Libya. In addition, as much as possible of the country’s infrastructure should be spared, so as to permit rapid reconstruction.
The particular end state and exit strategy will depend to a great extent on Gadhafi’s willingness to stop murdering his countrymen wholesale.
The international community drew a line in the Libyan sand just in time — mobilized by strong French, British and U.S. diplomatic and military leadership, supported by Arab League and NATO nations.
Continuing consensus will be fragile, but President Obama and his team were able to cast the die just in time. They deserve great credit, instead of endless talking heads, parsing, dissecting and didacting. Only a few former senior U.S. officials have called this right — a courageous gamble to save lives and avert disgrace — others seem to be reading out scenarios more useful for the colonel’s playbook, sounding more like Russia’s Vladimir Putin who criticizes this “crusade.”
Sometimes — not always — the world can stand up to protect civilian populations under imminent, deadly threat from one of the world’s most ruthless villains.
Lionel Rosenblatt has worked in conflict and disaster zones for more than four decades as a U.S. Foreign Service officer and nongovernmental organization official. He worked briefly as a reporter at the Bangor Daily News and lives part-time in Maine.