The United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1973 which authorized “all necessary measures” to enforce the embargo and no-fly zone did so specifically to protect civilians from the brutal and wanton violence of the Qaddafi regime against its own people. It specifically excluded “a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.” A wholesale invasion of Libya by NATO forces simply is not in the cards.
The NATO alliance has repeatedly expressed its commitment to these principles both in words and deeds. One only need ask the NATO pilots flying Libyan missions about their particularly restrictive rules of engagement, or the reasons for their periodic return to base with full payloads of bombs when the risk of inflicting civilian casualties – collateral damage – was considered too great.
