Britain is sending advisers to the rebels:
Hague said the "military liaison advisory team" would advise the opposition fighters on improving their organisation, communications and logistics, but they would not be involved in training or arming them.
The Russians say the war exceeds UNSC Resolution 1973's mandate:
"The U.N. Security Council never aimed to topple the Libyan regime," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "All those who are currently using the U.N. resolution for that aim are violating the U.N. mandate."
The Libyan rebels want total victory:
"Kadhafi will never give up power except by force," Mustafa Abdel Jalil said after talks with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, as his advisers said that no type of political mediation with the Kadhafi regime was planned.
The United Nations wants a ceasefire around Misrata:
The United Nations appealed on Tuesday for a ceasefire in the Libyan city of Misrata, saying at least 20 children had been killed in attacks by besieging government forces on rebel-held parts of the city.
NATO continues to hit command and control facilities of the loyalists:
"NATO conducted deliberate, multiple strikes against command and control facilities of the Kadhafi regime last night," the alliance said in a communique from its Brussels headquarters.
And the loyalists continue to attack Misrata:
Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi renewed the bombardment of Misrata Tuesday, causing a number of casualties, an Amnesty International researcher in the besieged Libyan city said.
All those conflicting impulses and wants over one small country. Can we call it a clusterfuck yet? (I've always relished the nuance of that military term--where so many eff ups combine at the same time in the same place to create one giant tangled ball of eff-ups greater than the sum of its effed up parts)
Yet through it all, I agree that the war is completely legal:
IS THE LIBYAN INTERVENTION LEGAL? “It is preposterous to use a euphemism like ‘kinetic military action’ and claim that the military campaign against the Gaddafi regime is not a ‘war.’ If any nation sent hundreds of missiles and bombs into the United States, all of them aimed at the American armed forces, the American people would of course consider this to be an act of war.”
Read the whole thing for some cogent arguments. Personally, I think it’s legal — ineffectual so far, but legal — but I’m certainly enjoying the irony of this administration’s endorsement of executive supremacy in matters military.
I agree with Instapundit that the war is legal. Yes, it is a war, but the Constitution provides Congress with the means to stop a war (the power of the purse) even if it didn't authorize the use of force beforehand. So my complaints about how it is being fought don't touch that issue. And while I do enjoy the contradictions of the Obama administration and its most fervent supporters given the opposition of both to "a war for oil" in a Moslem country, I do want to win this war.
I don't think NATO can win this war the way we are going, but I also keep in mind that I thought that there was no way we could win Allied Force in 1999 over Serbia and Kosovo with our aerial campaign. In the end, we got lucky there as the Serbs backed down as the threat of American invasion was raised and preparations were visibly made to go in on the ground. The Serbs blinked without making us carry out that growing threat.
Maybe Khaddafi will blink, too--even though there isn't even a vague threat yet of Western ground intervention. I think Khaddafi is made of sterner stuff, but who knows? I can't rule out that we'll be lucky again.
