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what the daily mail thinks of the libyan mess
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Libya is a murky distraction from the real battle

By Daily Mail Comment
Last updated at 1:26 AM on 30th March 2011

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Day by day it becomes clearer that nobody knows what we’ve started in Libya — and nobody has a clue how to end it.

We were led to believe our airmen were there as neutrals, simply to enforce the UN’s resolution to protect civilians.

So why are we blitzing Gaddafi’s forces and giving air cover to the rebel offensive?

 
If we are in Libya as neutrals, why are we blitzing Gaddafi¿s forces and giving air cover to the rebel offensive? 

Is our purpose to topple the dictator? Barack Obama, who is pulling America back as fast as he can, says emphatically it’s not. Our ministers try to have it both ways: No, we’re not aiming for regime change; but Yes, Gaddafi must go.

And while other countries say the tyrant should be offered exile, David Cameron insists he must be tried for war crimes. Doesn’t this give him a powerful incentive to fight to the bitter end?

Meanwhile, the Allies seem unable to agree any of the questions that matter.

Should we arm the rebels? British ministers say Yes. Nato, which assumes leadership of the mission today, says No.

Worse, it’s painfully apparent we don’t even know who these rebels are, in whose cause we’ve committed more than a quarter of the RAF’s Typhoon pilots.

If these gangs start killing civilians, will our planes have to blitz them, too? Under forensic questioning from John Humphrys on the BBC, neither a flailing William Hague nor the Nato secretary general would give a straight answer.

And now Nick Clegg chips in surreally from Mexico City (of all places) saying we’ll just have to accept it if Libya becomes a fundamentalist Islamic state.

So there you are. For the deputy prime minister — who, remember, found the turmoil in North Africa ‘incredibly exciting’ — it’s acceptable for our servicemen to risk their lives installing a regime even more hostile to the West than the madman Gaddafi’s.

As our politicians play at statesmen, isn’t it increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that this Libyan adventure is a hugely risky and costly distraction from the battle against Britain’s terrifying deficit? And isn’t that the first war we must win to remain a world-class power?

One final question: Just what is the point of Mr Clegg?


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371389/Libya-war-murky-distraction-real-battle-Britains-deficit.html#ixzz1I3BFL8T5








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