National Post
U.S. leadership split over Libya no-fly zone
By Sheldon Alberts
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday warned against “loose talk” about imposing a no-fly zone over Libya as fractures appeared within the Obama administration over possible military action against the regime of Col. Moammar Gaddafi.
Testifying at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, Mr. Gates said any U.S. or international effort would first require pre-emptive offensive strikes against Gaddafi’s air defences.
“Let’s just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya,” Mr. Gates told the House subcommittee on defence appropriations.
“That’s the way you do a no-fly zone. And then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down.”
Mr. Gates’ effort to tamp down expectations about the use of American force in the Libya crisis comes after both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and White House press secretary Jay Carney this week touted a no-fly zone as a distinct possibility.
The U.S. has already announced it will deploy warships in the Mediterranean Sea closer to the Libyan coast, and a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Red Sea may be positioned near enough for jet fighters to intervene.
“Well, if it’s ordered, we can do it,” Mr. Gates said. “But the reality is, there’s a lot of, frankly, loose talk about some of these military options.”
Gen. James Mattis, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said earlier this week imposition of a no-fly zone would require massive bombing of Libya’s air and missile defence infrastructure. Such an operation would require hundreds of aircraft, Pentagon officials say.
Imposing a no-fly zone “requires more airplanes than you would find on a single aircraft carrier,” Mr. Gates said.
The comments appeared to be a direct rebuke to U.S. senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, who have urged President Barack Obama to impose the no-fly zone and arm anti-Gaddafi rebels.
At the White House, Obama spokesman Jay Carney insisted a no-fly zone was still very much an option under consideration.
“The fact that the no-fly idea is complex does not mean it is not on the table,” Mr. Carney told reporters. “There is not a contradiction.”
The uncertainty over the administration’s plans came as Libyan opposition leaders made their own request for international forces to launch strikes against Gaddafi.
In the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, the opposition National Libyan Council urged the United Nations to approve air strikes against the dictator’s mercenary forces.
Hafiz Ghoga, a council spokesman, said anti-Gaddafi fighters opposed the deployment of international ground forces in Libya but said there is a “big difference between this and strategic airstrikes.”
With the U.S. military expressing reluctance, the Arab League on Wednesday said it could join with the African Union to impose its own no-fly zone.
“The Arab League will not stand with its hands tied while the blood of the brotherly Libyan people is spilled,” said Amr Moussa, the league’s secretary general.
Pentagon officials have for days quietly expressed concerns about the challenges of enforcing a no-fly zone, fearing it would divert resources from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Western media on Wednesday reported Libyan air forces attacked oil facilities near the city of Brega. But Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, said the military had “not been able to confirm that any of the Libyan aircraft have fired on their own people.”
Ms. Clinton, meantime, said the U.S. remained a “long way” from making a final decision. Over the long-term, the U.S. fears chaos in Libya could transform the country into “a giant Somalia” where al-Qaida fighters find refuge, Clinton said.
“It’s right now not something that we see in the offing. But many of the al-Qaida activists in Afghanistan, and later in Iraq, came from Libya, and came from eastern Libya, which is now the so-called free area of Libya,” she said.
During her testimony, Ms. Clinton was pressed by a senior Republican senator who said the turmoil in Libya highlights the need for the U.S. to expand its imports of oil from Canada.
“Volatile oil prices are a threat to United States’ economic recovery and dependence on foreign oil limits, our foreign policy choices,” said Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee.
“The State Department must work to diversify supply routes and boost our energy trade with reliable and transparent allies such as Canada in place of shaky and sometimes hostile suppliers.”
The State Department is currently weighing whether to grant a permit allowing Calgary-based TransCanada to construct a 3,200-kilometre Keystone XL pipeline to move oilsands crude from northern Alberta to the Gulf Coast of Texas.
- With files from Reuters
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