Despite growing doubts about the effectiveness of the conflict and international efforts to broker a ceasefire, NATO announced today that it is extending the war in Libya for an additional 90 days.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the move was important because it “sends a clear message to the Gadhafi regime: we are determined to continue our operation.” Officials justified the move as retaliation after South African President Jacob Zuma failed to negotiate Gadhafi’s departure from the country.
The announcement will also send a message to the rebels, however, that NATO intends to continue its ill-conceived war indefinitely. This may make efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the conflict, which has been essentially stalemated since April, all but impossible.
It was also usher in a growing humanitarian disaster in western Libya, where the United Nations is reporting that food and medicine are in short supply. With NATO promising to continue bombing this half of the country for another 90 days, it seems that this will only get worse going forward.
Another thee months? Hopefully more successful than the first three.
Whatever happened to "a matter days, rather than weeks"? Another famous instance of almost total uncomprehension and hubristic 'optimism'.
Let's see if they're voting on another three month extension come August.
And in 90 days, they'll extend it another 90 days and then another 90 and so on and so forth till EXXON can do its thing and Libya has been properly colonized vis-a-vis a network of military basis and at least 50,000 troops on the ground.
They will keep on "extending" it until they kill him.
Isn’t it great to be alive in a time when wars are ended by legislation and fiat rather than either side winning or losing! Think of how much blood and treasure would have been saved if the two World Wars could have been dealt with in this way. This is, of course, due to the benefits flowing from having wars “in” countries – first introduced and now brought to perfection by the USA – as opposed to having wars “between” countries. Another major benefit – at least for the instigators of the “in-country” wars if not for the inhabitants of the chosen war zone – is that it does not impact the citizenry who are hardly aware that their countries are at war at all. How enlightened we have become, to be sure.