Italy called today for a ceasefire in NATO's Libya mission.
"We have seen the effects of the crisis and therefore also of NATO action not only in eastern and southwestern regions but also in Tripoli," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told the Italian Parliament.
"I believe an immediate humanitarian suspension of hostilities is required in order to create effective humanitarian corridors," while negotiations should also continue on a more formal ceasefire and peace talks" , he said.
"I think this is the most urgent and dramatic point," Frattini continued.
"I think it is legitimate to request ever more detailed information on the results" of the NATO mission, he added, condemning "the dramatic errors that hit civilians, which is clearly not an objective of the NATO mission."
What's actually going on is that the Italians have been hit by two problems they didn't quite anticipate.
Khaddaffi has held on far longer than NATO anticipated, and the rebels have been unable to make headway against his forces even with NATO assistance. As the war has continued to drag on, costs have mounted and a swarm of Libyan refugees has inundated Italy, both of which are putting a strain on a country that already has a significant amount of major economic problems. The Italian Northern League Party, a conservative member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition has come out strongly against continuing the war.
The French and the British continue to be the main backers of the war, which is easily understandable since they have the most to lose if Khaddaffi prevails and the lucrative oil contracts they struck with the rebels become worthless.
France immediately ruled out any ceasefire.
"The coalition and the countries that met as the Abu Dhabi contact group two weeks ago were unanimous on the strategy: we must intensify the pressure on Kadhafi," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters.
British Prime Minister David Cameron was reportedly warned by senior army figures that the Libya operation was extremely unpopular with the military personnel involved, the costs were unsustainable and that continuing beyond the summer would make it difficult for Britain to respond to other conflicts in the future.
Cameron rebuffed them and said Britain would continue the operation "as long as is necessary."
They really, really want that oil.
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All of the problems Libya did not anticipate, I anticipated all of them before the war even started. How could they not have foreseen this? Don't these people get paid alot of money to analyze these things?
"They really, really want that oil." Actually they really, really NEED that oil. This makes the operation even more baffling. They had contracts with Libya for the oil did they not? Why put those in jeporady to back "rebels" we barely even know and that never had any real chance of winning? Even if they didn't have contracts, the Libyans would have likely been willing to sell oil to them. Now even that's in jeporady.
The problem for the US is that relatives of Khaddaffi have been killed in this operation. He, his sons, and other top officials in the regime are going to blame America for this. They will never forget and now more than ever will never stop trying to harm America. This makes it all more crucial that we withdraw all forces from Libya and the entire Middle East without delay and redeploy them to the US borders where they will have a fighting chance to defend our country.
Part of this may mean us cutting a separate deal with Libya where we receive some kind of security guarantees from them where we can be sure they aren't going to attack us in retaliation for this ill conceived military action. If this is done, we should insist upon some way to actually ensure Libyan compliance with the terms. America is closely scrutinized by an often hostile news media. As such its compliance with any agreement is assured.
Sicne the British and French were foolish enough to jepordize perfectly good oil deals to support rebels who never had any chance of winning any way, let them fight their own war. They fantasize about being "top dog." Here's their chance.
Finally, Italy can just walk away. No offense to Italy but it is a small weak country with no real influence. Libya will really want to target America for vengence here and will likely ignore Italy. As such, it is not so easy for us to just walk away. We need some type of assurance from Libya that they are not going to be targeting us for destruction and that our people will not be targeted by them.
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