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Libya's Terrorism Option
On March 19, military forces from the United States, France and Great
Britain began to enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, which
called for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya and authorized
the countries involved in enforcing the zone to “take all necessary
measures” to protect civilians and “civilian-populated areas under
threat of attack.” Obviously, such military operations cannot be imposed
against the will of a hostile nation without first removing the
country’s ability to interfere with the no-fly zone — and removing this
ability to resist requires strikes against military command-and-control
centers, surface-to-air missile installations and military airfields.
This means that the no-fly zone not only was a defensive measure to
protect the rebels — it also required an attack upon the government of
Libya.
Certainly, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has no doubt that the U.S. and
European military operations against the Libyan military targets are
attacks against his regime. He has specifically warned France and the
United Kingdom that they would come to regret the intervention. Now,
such threats could be construed to mean that should Gadhafi survive, he
will seek to cut off the countries’ access to Libyan energy resources in
the future. However, given Libya’s past use of terrorist strikes to
lash out when attacked by Western powers, Gadhafi’s threats certainly
raise the possibility that, desperate and hurting, he will once again
return to terrorism as a means to seek retribution for the attacks
against his regime. While threats of sanctions and retaliation have
tempered Gadhafi’s use of terrorism in recent years, his fear may
evaporate if he comes to believe he has nothing to lose. Read more »
