Une troisième guerre dans le monde arabe? Les doutes de plusieurs observateurs...
U.S. lawmakers who had pushed the U.S. to enter a third war in a Muslim land hailed the U.N.'s action. "With Gaddafi's forces moving towards Benghazi, we must immediately work with our friends in the Arab League and in NATO to enforce this resolution and turn the tide before it is too late," Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a joint statement. "We must also build a bipartisan consensus here at home to support the President in taking the swift and decisive measures necessary to stop Gaddafi."
The lengthy debate over coming to the aid of the Libyan rebels has left the U.N. alliance with a tougher challenge than if it had acted earlier, when Gaddafi's forces were on the run. Because he has recaptured much of the territory he lost in recent days – and momentum is clearly on his side – some U.S. officials fear the U.N. action "only guarantees a stalemate."
A rebel spokesman concurred. "Our demand for a no-fly zone would have been sufficient two weeks ago," Essam Gheriani told the Washington Post. "Now the need is to hit Gaddafi's land troops and tanks that are laying siege to Libyan cities and stop their advance toward Benghazi. Time is in his favor, not ours." While the resolution passed 10 to 0, there were five abstentions, including China, Germany and Russia. That suggests the international community is not united in the Libyan operation, especially if it drags on.
It's clear there was substantial reluctance to enter this fray inside the Pentagon, a mood made clear in recent weeks by both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But the military, as it always does, will salute and carry out whatever orders they are given in the coming hours.
So it was left to outsiders to say publicly what many in uniform can only whisper. Andrew Exum of the Center for a New American Security, an Army veteran of the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, voiced some of that unease. "It really does seem like we are going to go to war with another country in the Arabic-speaking world. Incredible," he wrote on his blog Thursday night. "I should be thankful for the broad international coalition we have put together, and for the fact that a large ground invasion is unlikely, but I mainly just have a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach."
Sur le site du Time: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/03/17/war-with-libya-looms/
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