With the president of the U.S. having called for Gadhafi's ouster, our failure to deliver is making us look ineffectual. It discourages democrats across the Middle East and encourages tyrants. And it raises the prospect that the coalition may splinter. Already Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said he is against this operation, which cannot function without the bases provided by his country. Meanwhile, Britain and France are running low on munitions, and other allies are pulling back.
The Obama administration can plausibly reply that Gadhafi's power is being undermined. But the process is agonizingly slow - and the longer it goes on, the greater the danger of Libyan arms stockpiles (including portable anti-aircraft missiles) falling into the hands of terrorists. There is also a danger of the country being permanently divided into two, or being plunged into long-term civil war as divisions harden between pro- and anti-government tribes.
None of this is an excuse to try to cut off funding for the war effort, as a coalition of ultra-right-wing and ultra-left-wing lawmakers are trying to do. Instead, Congress should follow the lead of Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and urge the administration to step up our efforts to bring the war to a swift and satisfactory conclusion. This would principally involve committing more U.S. aircraft to strike missions, including ground-attack aircraft such as the AC-130 and A-10, which our allies do not have. We should also send Special Operations Forces - if we haven't already - to better coordinate air strikes and train rebel forces. And we should provide arms to the rebels, something that the French government has admitted doing.
But - and this is a message that no one in Washington wants to hear - we must not limit our war aims to simply toppling Gadhafi. We made that mistake in Iraq and Afghanistan. By not paying attention to what comes after the deposal of a dictator, we inadvertently created conditions for a long-term insurgency. In Libya it is imperative that the U.S. and our allies make plans now to insert a stabilization force after Gadhafi's downfall to help the National Transitional Council gain control of the country.
Needless to say, no one wants to see U.S. troops in another ground war - especially at a time of shrinking budgets and declining force size. The bulk of any such force in Libya should be provided by the Europeans since Libya is on their doorstep. But we can't simply wash our hands of the place. The sooner we defeat Gadhafi's forces and stabilize the country, the sooner we can achieve our objectives.
