In his Libya address to Americans Tuesday, March 29, President Barack Obama failed to resolve inner contradictions in his strategy for US involvement in the Western campaign against Muammar Qaddafi:
“The United States would work with its allies to hasten the day when Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi leaves power, but would not use force to topple him." The US would “help the opposition” but play only a supporting role. In fact, the United States is sliding deeper into a third war in a Muslim country.

For the first time an international coalition has gone to war against a UN member which does not menace fellow-members but its own people.  It leaves US -  US   Saudi and US-Arab Gulf relations in bad shape.           The UN resolution's reference to "the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi" is easily interchangeable with the name of any other country and city by a Security Council majority. It is therefore a precedent that strikes fear in many capitals. .. .

Saudi Arabia ranges defenses against Iran, is willing to swap gesture favoring coalition operation in Libya for recognition of its takeover of Bahrain.

Although the Western coalition has gone beyond just enforcing the no-fly zone, it has not crippled the pro-Qaddafi army or its ability to move large forces across long distances and keep its supply routes open.

Profound disagreements among three allies and within their administrations are hampering progress in the Libyan operation. NATO and Arab props crumple.

In response to coalition air strikes, Qaddafi has adopted the tactic of embedding his forces within key rebel-held cities transforming his opponents into human shields for his army.

Four days after the Western-Arab coalition decided Saturday, March 19 to enforce a no fly zone over Libya, only six Western warplanes - American, British, Canadian and French - are in the sky at any one time, debkafile's military sources disclose. This is barely enough for a no-fly zone just over Benghazi. And so the anti-Qaddafi operation has run out of steam, slowed also by the falling-out between Washington, London and Paris over its nature and goals and the fading away of the Arab component.

debkafile's sources report the claim that Libya's integrated air defense systems were knocked out by Saturday's US-UK-French bombardment was overstated. Muammar Qaddafi had removed his sophisticated hardware - Russian-made SA-5 missiles which can hit medium or high-flying aircraft and his shoulder-launched K38 Igla9 (SA-18) missiles mounted on Italian Ivaco trucks - to hideouts in the south.
The Western-Arab coalition is split over Qaddafi's removal as endgame, while Arab League Secretary Amr Mussa has already criticized the air strikes.

Twenty French fighter jets destroyed a number of tanks in Benghazi Saturday, March 19, in the first shots of the Western-Arab operation authorized by the UN Security Council 1973 against Muammar Qaddafi, soon joined by British jet fighters. After the US stated it would not take part in the first action or send troops, a US submarine and UK warships fired 112 Tomahawk missiles at 20 Libyan targets east of Tripoli, among them the Libyan army's supreme command center.

US President Barack Obama Friday, March 18, laid down an ultimatum for Muammar Qaddafi to comply with or else face "military consequences," the key condition being the withdrawal of Libyan troops from three towns including Ajdabiya – tantamount to lifting the siege on Benghazi.  He set no deadline for those withdrawals nor did he demand that the towns in question revert to rebel control or Qaddafi's departure. European and Arab planes expected to start enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya in the next day or two.

The resolution the UN Security Council passed Thursday night, March 17 approved not only a no-fly zone for Libya but also "all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack" – a mandate for military steps short of invasion. It was carried by 10 votes with Russia, China, Brazil, India and Germany abstaining. The US, British, French, UAE and Qatar air forces are on standby. If attacked, Libya threatens retaliation against civilian and military targets in Europe and the Middle East.

Qaddafi has spent $1.2 billion in a shopping binge for new weapons, some acquired through barter. Libyan rebels only sold arms, mainly chemical weapons to Hizballah and Hamas through Iranian middlemen.

As Washington commended the Arab League for approving a proposed no-fly zone over Libya and European powers drew up plans for saving the anti-Qaddafi movement from defeat, Syria began sending Muammar Qaddafi supplies of arms, ammunition and weapons spare parts to sustain his effort to crush the uprising. In the last 24 hours, rebel militias were pushed out of the two key oil towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega in eastern Libya by pro-Qaddafi troops landed by sea.

A wealth of revelations on the undercover wars waged by the US and Britain in their separate interests on both sides of the Libyan uprising. Muammar Qaddafi, too, has a state of the art system of espionage, eavesdropping and assassins in place. Al Qaeda, too, has looking for pickings ...

First Obama drafted five military options, leaving the impression of a NATO intervention, and then turned his back on the Libyan conflict as Muammar Qaddafi gained ground.

Following Muammar Qaddafi's military successes Tuesday, Western-backed parties Wednesday, March 9, discreetly solicited him on the Libyan rebels' behalf for diplomatic understandings to stop his forces short of marching on rebel-held Cyrenaica in the east, debkafile's exclusive sources report. In return, the rebels would accept an informal ceasefire and let the oil facilities return to normal. Egypt's Field Marshal Tantawi, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and Vienna-based diplomats are leading these early exchanges.

After three weeks of savage warfare,  Col. Muammar Qaddafi reached the tipping point of his offensive against rebel forces Tuesday, March 8  and his troops are advancing toward Ajdabiya, their first destination in the rebel-held eastern region of Cyrenaica, debkafile's military sources report. Seriously outgunned, the anti-Qaddafi militias appear to have folded and are no longer able to post a defense line to stop the government advance. Their appeals for outside aid fall on deaf ears.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's next issue out Friday has a wealth of revelations on the undercover wars waged by the US and Britain in their separate interests on both sides of the Libyan uprising. They are not alone. The US is setting military-intelligence infrastructure in place for military intervention – notwithstanding the ongoing debate in Washington; Muammar Qaddafi is drawing greater empowerment from the revolt; and Al Qaeda, too, has chosen its role in the upheaval.

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US President Barack Obama launched a number of diplomatic and military steps Monday March 7 pointing toward preparation for US and NATO intervention in the Libyan civil war - notwithstanding objections from the Pentagon and US military chiefs. debkafile's sources report the administration was behind the UAE appeal Monday for UN Security Council protection for the Libyan people. The UAE was clearly seeking a mandate for military action, but Moscow quickly declared its opposition to any foreign intervention in Libya.

Sunday, March 6, pro-Qaddafi forces followed up their gains of Saturday - a cluster of Gulf of Sirte (Sidra) towns east of Tripoli and Zawiya west of the capital - by breaking through to the bridge leading to the center of the key town of Misratah. Rebel forces preparing for a last stand in the town were bombarded from the sea, while the anti-Qaddafi forces heading for Sirte were pounded from the air. Several army colonels defected to the opposition.