A UN human rights investigator, Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group have dispeled the propaganda against Libya's Gaddhafi. There was no mass rape, no foreign mercenaries were found and the claims of massive military attacks against civilians were false.
But the propaganda continues. The Wall Street Journal talked with Africom, the U.S. military organization concerned with subjugating the 50 states of Africa to a U.S. dictate, and was told about some new intelligence about Libya.
New U.S. intelligence shows Col. Moammar Gadhafi is "seriously considering" fleeing Tripoli for a more secure location outside the capital, according to U.S. officials, raising the prospect that the Libyan leader's hold on power is increasingly fragile.
It seems the "days not weeks" Obama illusion is still operational. Gaddhafi will of course not leave Tripoli. Why should he?
But the WSJ story also carries an official voice which, and this is a first, finally acknowledges the utter stupidity of this whole war:
"We, the international community, could be in postconflict Libya tomorrow and there isn't a plan, there is not a good plan," the senior U.S. commander in Africa, Gen. Carter Ham, told The Wall Street Journal.
Using a pluralis majestatis and declaring that the handful of countries involved in attacking Libya are the "international community" is pure hubris. But Ham is at least admitting that the whole idea of taking down Gaddhafi was never really thought through. Like in the war on Iraq there is no plan for Phase IV of the war for "activities conducted after decisive combat operations to stabilize and reconstruct the area of operations". It is still possible that such a plan may not be needed for Libya. Gaddhafi has not lost yet and without a "lucky shot", that kills him as ordered, the conflict can go on for month and month until, amid exhaustion, some political compromise solution is found or Gaddhafi finds some trick to defeat the rebels.
But Ham is concerned with an important issue. No, it is not the life or well being of the Libyan people. Notice what he mentions first:
Gen. Ham predicted that Col. Gadhafi could fall quickly, underlining the need for an allied plan to deal with the aftermath. He said the United Nations or African Union might have to contribute a significant ground force to Libya. He stressed that the U.S. wouldn't send troops.
"If it ends in chaos, if it is a state collapse and all the institutions of the government fall apart, you will potentially need a sizable force on the ground to secure critical infrastructure and maintain law and order," Gen. Ham said.
"Critical infrastructure", as the war on Iraq taught, only means one thing. The oil wells the U.S., France and Britain hope to get their hands on.
But I doubt that General Ham will find the troops he talks about to secure those wells. Which UN or AU country would be stupid enough to intervene in the tribal conflicts in Libya when it falls apart? Of the current participants in the war on Libya, neither the U.S., France or the U.K. nor Italy have any appetite for another drawn out expensive occupation. Tunisia or Egypt are busy with themselves and will not send soldiers abroad. The African countries south of Libya will understand that to send African troops into a mostly Arab country where the rebels have killed black guest workers just for the fun of it andtheir skin color is not a good idea.
General Ham has taken a first step which the politicians who started this war have yet to take. He admits that there will be "a day after" for which no plans exist. But he still has "days not weeks" like illusions that such a plan can be somehow improvised on a short term. The current UN resolution explicitly excludes any occupation force and I doubt that China and Russia will ever agree to a new one changing that. Any unilateral U.S. financed African force on Libyan grounds would not survive and just like the U.S. financed Ethiopian 2006-2008 occupation of Somalia end in defeat.
The best solution for Libya is still Colonel Gaddhafi and letting him, without further interference, find a way to keep Libya stable even after his rule ends.
Unfortunately it is unlikely that General Ham, or any politician in his "international community", will publicly come to that conclusion. They will rather sow chaos than to admit they were wrong all along.