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| The West slowly backing away from the Libyan military operation |
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 It's getting harder and harder to believe there'll eventually be a resolution to Libya's civil war that will allow anyone to claim Moammar Gaddafi lost to rebel forces — or was humbled by members of the NATO-led coalition waging air strikes against him.Indeed, it's becoming increasingly clear as the weeks rush by that battle-weary European partners in the intervention force are keener to find ways of ending the conflict and pull forces back home than they are to obtain their initial objectives of seeing Gaddafi deposed and forced abroad. The upshot is the sound of diplomatic throats being cleared ever louder to prepare public opinion for the now-probable scenario of the operation ending without Gaddafi having budged much. As Tony Karon's July 20 post noted, U.S. officials came away from recent meetings in Tunisia with Gaddafi representatives repeating demands that the colonel “must go” as a part of any resolution to the conflict. Yet even then it was becoming evident that what “go” ultimately entails may not meet the definition rebels have long advanced: of Gaddafi being forcefully driven from power, arrested, and handed over to the UN tribunal wanting to try him for crimes against humanity. On July 20, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé told French TV channel LCI that “one of the hypotheses that's envisioned is, indeed, that (Gaddafi) stays in Libya on the condition he very clearly leaves Libyan political life”. That considerably watered down position on the criteria to end the conflict was then repeated on July 25 by British Foreign Secretary William Hague. While remaining adamant that “Gaddafi must leave power”, Hague left the Libyan leader's fate beyond that open to question. "Obviously him leaving Libya itself would be the best way of showing the Libyan people that they no longer have to live in fear of Gaddafi,” Hague said Monday, prior to his meeting with Juppé in London. "But as I have said all along, this is ultimately a question for Libyans to determine." (Source: TIME)   Socialize this Subscribe to our RSS feed to stay in touch and receive all of TT updates right in your feed reader
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