Take a look on Google and you'll find more than 1,500 news items combining the words "Libya" and "stalemate". Repeating the search for Syria and "stalemate" reveals a mere 109 items, and for Yemen only 73.
This is rather strange, because the Yemeni and Syrian uprisings – unlike that in Libya – are both obvious examples of a state of stalemate. In Yemen and Syria, the regimes have no prospect of restoring the status quo, but at the same time it's difficult to see how their opponents can decisively gain the upper hand.
That has never really been the case in Libya, despite many articles predicting that stalemate would occur, and others treating it as an established fact. Once Nato intervened and the National Transitional Council (NTC) began winning international recognition, the writing was on the wall for Gaddafi.
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