Qaddafi looks for a way out

What happened

With a rebel uprising still raging in the east and NATO planes continuing to patrol the skies, Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi this week appeared to be looking for an exit. Two of his sons, Saif and Saadi, sent representatives to meet with Western diplomats, and reportedly said they could persuade their father to step aside and make way for a constitutional democracy. The catch: Saif would head the transitional government. Rebel leaders dismissed the proposal as unacceptable. “These guys have so much blood on their hands,” said opposition spokesman Mustafa Gheriani. “There’s no way to replace Qaddafi with a small Qaddafi.” It’s also not clear that Qaddafi approved that offer. But after the defection of his foreign minister and right-hand man Moussa Koussa to Britain last week, the despot is increasingly isolated, and increasingly reliant on his sons’ advice.

The two-month-old civil war, meanwhile, appears to be headed for a stalemate. Opposition leaders complained that their poorly armed fighters lacked air cover against Qaddafi’s artillery. NATO, which has taken control of the Libya operation as the U.S. stepped back, said it had to stage fewer bombing raids because pilots were struggling to distinguish regime loyalists from rebels. Qaddafi’s forces, NATO said, had learned to place their armored vehicles and big guns in densely populated areas, knowing that the West would hold its fire out of fear it might kill civilians.

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What the editorials said

The military deadlock is partly the result of Obama’s insistence on limiting U.S. involvement, said The Washington Post. To lower “America’s profile in the Middle East,” Obama this week grounded the AC-130 and the A-10 Warthog planes that have been eviscerating Qaddafi’s tanks and other vehicles. No other NATO member can deploy such effective air-to-ground attack planes. This “withholding of U.S. resources” will only lead to the unnecessary extension of a bloody conflict.

Everyone wants this civil war to end “sooner than later,” said the Tulsa World. But we won’t stop the bloodshed by installing another Qaddafi as Libya’s ruler. Saif and younger brother Mutassim are fierce rivals, and their supporters will go to war “if one of the sons is allowed to replace the father.” If we really want to get rid of this fractious family, we’ll have to forget about prosecuting them at the International Criminal Court, said The Boston Globe. “Indeed, leaving the door open for them to seek sanctuary in some other country may speed their departure.”

What the columnists said

Unless Qaddafi is offered immunity from prosecution, it’s likely he’ll stay in Libya and “fight on until the bitter end,” said DeWayne Wickham in USA Today. The dictator doesn’t want to end up like former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who went into exile in 2003 as part of a deal to end the country’s civil war, and three years later was handed over to a war-crimes tribunal. “As hard as it is for many to swallow,” offering Qaddafi a “get out of jail free” card is the only thing that will quickly put an end to the carnage.

Qaddafi won’t be “bombed into submission,” said former Republican Rep. Curt Weldon in The New York Times. But for the right deal, he might step down. I first met Qaddafi when I visited Libya as a congressman in 2004, and I’m now back in the country with a private delegation, at the request of Qaddafi’s chief of staff, to help negotiate the hand­over of power. That handover will only happen if we include Saif, “a powerful businessman and politician” who has been a moderating influence on his father’s regime.

Until Qaddafi’s departure is guaranteed, the West should continue to “ratchet up the pressure,” said David Brooks, also in The New York Times. The regime is continually being weakened by airstrikes and psychological warfare. The “squeeze is working,” said David Ignatius in The Washington Post. An intelligence source says that the regime only has enough cash to last two to three months. “From this financial perspective, Qaddafi could be described as a dictator in liquidation.”