Don't Take Gaddafi's Bait: Ignore the Ceasefire

UPDATE: News reports indicate that Libyan forces continue to shell the rebels.

Now that the international community has decided to get tough with Gaddafi, suddenly the Crazy Colonel has announced a cease-fire. Military operations are said to have stopped. “[Libya] takes great interest in protecting civilians,” he said. Yeah. Right.

Gaddafi is shrewdly expecting that President Obama and the Europeans will not have the stomach for military action so long as “negotiations” are under way in Libya. If the United States and the Europeans go along, they will be trapped in a diplomatic no-man’s-land. Remember the 1990s with Saddam Hussein? He stayed in power, thumbed his nose at the world, and we kept flying sorties over Iraq for years to enforce a “no fly zone.”

The problem is not simply the fighting in Libya it is Gaddafi himself. Does anyone think that he won’t massacre his opponents once he gets the chance?

President Obama needs to get tough and do what he hasn’t indicated he is capable of doing: leading by doing something that may not be popular but is now necessary. Now that Obama has committed himself and said that Gaddafi must go, maintaining American credibility means that he must proceed. Egypt is apparently supplying small arms to the Libyan rebels, with US knowledge. You can’t halfway fight Gaddafi. Either take care of business by fully supporting the opposition, or stay out.