"A serious misunderstanding"

Diplomatic initiative

The United Kingdom’s involvement in what is now becoming a civil war took an embarrassing turn this week. A “Diplomatic initiative” to make contact with the Libyan opposition went spectacularly wrong when the diplomatic team was ambushed and detained. To make matters worse for the British government, the team was being escorted by a squadron of SAS Special Forces troops. The soldiers were also detained, allegedly by a group of farmhands.

The SAS soldiers and diplomats, who were carrying weapons, explosives and fake passports were first suspected as spies. It was later revealed that the diplomat was actually a high ranking member of the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6.

William Hague - (Free image, Wiki commons)

Foreign secretary William Hague took to the floor of the House of Commons for questions and accepted full responsibility for the teams’ deployment to Libya. He also announced that all eight members had been released and repatriated by the warship HMS Cumberland.

Hague has now been at the head of two blunders involving Libya and faced calls of “Resign!” from the back benches of the house. The first was earlier in the crisis when he announced and confirmed Colonel Gaddafi has fled Libya. This second incident has left the UK government red faced, the SAS are held in esteem as the country’s finest soldiers and amongst the best in the world.

Military options

While the British government cringes in embarrassment, President Obama is exploring all options. Speaking in Brussels at a NATO meeting the President was quoted as saying,

“We are consulting around a wide range of potential options, including potential military options, in response to the violence that continues to take place inside of Libya.”

Earlier this week the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise transited the Suez Canal to take station close to Libya. Along with her battle group, Enterprise and land based aircraft from France, the UK and Italy is quite capable of establishing air superiority over Libya, a vital prelude to a no fly zone.

USS Enterprise (Free image wiki commons)

Libya possesses a moderate air defence network, most of their equipment is obsolete 1970’s Soviet technology, but these weapons and their support systems, such as radar and command and communications installations would have to neutralise before fighters could patrol.

An attack on these targets could prove politically costly. Colonel Gaddafi would probably move all of his mobile equipment into population centres, thus risking collateral damage and civilian casualties. It could also have the effect of rallying the people against the common “Western enemy."

Exit Strategy?

Whilst military options are being planned there is a chance they will never have to be implemented. On March 8 reports began to emerge in the press that Colonel Gaddafi would be willing to stand down.

Rebel forces fight on

The stipulations for him to make the move would be that he and his family are made immune from prosecution and safe passage out of the country. It is understood that this idea has been rejected by the Libyan opposition.

With Gaddafi seemingly in the corner, the military action has continued with forces loyal to him striking back at the rebels. With fighting now in its third week, the UN reports more than 1,000 people have died and 200,000 have fled the country.