Under siege in Libya

Civilian casualties continued to mount in the besieged Libyan city of Misurata this week, almost two months after forces loyal to dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi began pounding the port with rockets, cluster bombs, and sniper fire. At least 300 deaths have been recorded in Misurata—the last opposition-held city in western Libya—but rebels said the real death toll is closer to 1,000. NATO jets patrolling the skies above Misurata have so far proved powerless to stop the slaughter, as the regime has stationed its heavy artillery in densely populated neighborhoods—which the alliance won’t bomb for fear of killing civilians. “Misurata is finished,” said one local. “Someone needs to save us.” NATO has so far refused to deploy ground troops, but Britain, France, and Italy have agreed to send several dozen military advisers to the eastern opposition stronghold of Benghazi, to help organize the ramshackle rebel army.

President Obama’s poor military choices are prolonging Misurata’s misery, said The Washington Post in an editorial. The only planes that can “root out” the artillery Qaddafi has positioned in built-up areas—without causing massive civilian casualties—are American ground-attack aircraft like the A-10 Warthog. But Obama has refused to supply NATO with these planes, in order to make the “ideological point” that the U.S. is not playing the lead role in this operation.

The fact that Britain and France—the countries doing most of the bombing—“need U.S. help to take on Qaddafi’s pitiful forces should be a wake-up call,” said James Joyner in Foreign Policy. For too long, European nations have cut military spending and allowed America to “shoulder the burden.” This latest operation might serve to remind our NATO allies that there is “value in investing in their own defense.”

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Whoever’s at fault, the ongoing deadlock in Libya is a real threat to U.S. power, said Leslie Gelb in TheDailyBeast.com. Iran and North Korea are feeling increasingly confident as the “mighty NATO and the U.S. can’t humble that weirdo Col. Qaddafi and his pint-size army.” And the longer this conflict goes on, the more Tehran and Pyongyang will come to believe that “the West can’t do decisive harm to them.”