The nuts take another step to escalate their war on Libya:
Britain and France are to deploy attack helicopters against Libya in an attempt to break the military stalemate, particularly in the important coastal city of Misrata, security sources have told the Guardian.
Those helicopters will of course not change the stalemate. Nor will further massive bombing of Tripoli like it happened last night. But the "western" countries involved in this do not want a political solution. We can therefore expect further mission creap.
Soon the self imposed political pressure on those who committed themselves to take down Gaddahfi, and to steal the Libyan oil, will again increase and the only escalation left will be to commit real ground troops along those special forces already there.
Meanwhile the UNSC resolution for a "no-fly zone" is getting a slight reinterpretation:
[France's foreign minister] Juppé said the helicopters would not be used to deploy ground forces in Libya and that the decision to send them was fully in line with the UN security council resolution mandating attacks in Libya.
One wonders what those veto countries who did not vote for the resolution may think of this. This reinterpretation will likely make further UN resolutions in equivalent cases impossible. That, and the damage this does to NATO, may well be the only positives coming from this conflict.
