This Libyan war is on the cheap

The Strategic Defence and Security Review was criticised for its strategic illiteracy, incoherence and failure to allow sufficiently for the unexpected. These same features characterise the government's military intervention in Libya, now a classic example of how to act in haste and repent at leisure.

The campaign has lost its way. UN Resolution 1973 authorised intervention to forestall a massacre of Benghazi's citizens and to impose a no-fly zone, together with "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians. This is, more or less, what the Nato-led coalition is doing; the problem is that they have been doing it for too long. The UK bill has passed £100m and costs are rising.

The "something must be done" lobby hope for regime change, which, apparently, is not on the coalition agenda. Of course it is on the agenda; it has been from the start. It's just that everyone wants the Libyan people to do it. The UN mandate is insufficient to resolve the situation – the Libyans lack the military muscle to engineer a decisive result. There is a further complication. Libya faces the prospect of progressive breakdown in services and in law and order.

Military commanders are now performing mental gymnastics over how to force Gaddafi from power within the terms of the UN mandate. This relies on degrading the regime's ability to exercise power and encouraging defections to induce a "tipping point".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/22/nato-un-libya-strategy-failure