Hague defended the use of attack helicopters and ruled out putting forces on the ground in Libya, saying NATO would stick to the terms of a UN Security Council resolution passed in March to protect civilians.
"This is not mission creep, changing the nature of the mission, this is intensifying what we are doing in order to make this mission a success," he added.
He's right. The unstated mission has always been to overthrow the Khaddafi regime, and the failure to do so with the assets committed led the alliance to add this new asset.
This is plain old gradual escalation. You know, add a little more power in the hope that the new increment will be what breaks the enemy.
Usually, this just gives an enemy the time to adapt to higher levels of force which, if applied from the start, might have broken the enemy.
But Khaddafi's Libya is a weak opponent. Maybe gradual escalation will even work on his regime.
