NATO INCREASES ATTACKS IN LIBYA – AT 7:06 A.M. ET:  If ever there was a forgotten war, Libya is it.  We really don't talk about it much, or even think about it, but American military assets are in play in Libya, whether wisely or not.  NATO is increasing the pressure, and I have to believe that Washington has a hand in that increase because Obama, politically, wants this problem out of the way fast.  From Fox:

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Low-flying NATO military craft hit Tripoli in eleven successive attacks on Tuesday in rare daytime strikes on the Libyan capital as pressure mounted on the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.

The strikes shook the city and appeared to land close to Qaddafi's sprawling compound, but government officials were not immediately available to confirm the targets. After some of the strikes, pro-Qaddafi loyalists inside the capital fired anti-aircraft weapons into the air.

NATO officials have warned for days that they were seeking to increase the scope and intensity of their two-month old campaign to oust Qaddafi after more than 40 years in power.

NATO is assisting a four-month old rebel insurgency that has seized swaths of eastern Libya and pockets in the regime's stronghold of the country's west.

COMMENT:  But NATO's policy is inconsistent.  The crackdown in Syria is just as brutal as Qaddafi's actions in trying to put down the Libyan revolt, but the Syrian regime gets little more than a stern tut-tut, with no hint of military intervention.  There does not appear to be, on the part of Washington, or the other NATO nations, a clearly thought-out strategy. 

I would hope that a message will be sent to Qaddafi threatening to kill him and all around him, but offering some kind of deal that will let him live, as long as he leaves the country.  Our killing of bin Laden gives us ample street cred, and it's important to get this Libyan operation finished as soon as possible.

At the same time, there is almost no reporting on the political nature of the Libyan opposition.  Is it made up of true fighters for democracy, or are we going to see another Iranian situation, where we replaced a dictator with another dictator with a longer beard and neat costumes?  We should also be chastised by the situation in Egypt, which saw a "glorious" revolution earlier this year, but which is now seeing a gradual drift toward greater influence by the Islamists.  We're not exactly sending the Welcome Wagon in.

June 7, 2011