The Pentagon is about to pull its attack planes out of the international air campaign in Libya, hoping NATO partners can take up the slack.
The announcement on Thursday drew incredulous reactions from some in Congress who wondered aloud why US President Barack Obama’s administration would bow out of a key element of the strategy for protecting Libyan civilians and crippling Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s army.
“Odd,” “troubling” and “unnerving” were among critical comments by senators pressing for an explanation of the announcement by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen that US combat missions would end today.
“Your timing is exquisite,” Republican Senator John McCain said sarcastically, alluding to Qaddafi’s military advances this week.
Gates and Mullen, in back-to-back appearances before the House of Representatives and Senate armed services committees, also forcefully argued against putting the US in the role of arming or training Libyan rebel forces, while suggesting it might be a job for Arab or other countries. The White House has said repeatedly that it has not ruled out arming the rebels, who have retreated pell-mell this week under the pressure of a renewed eastern offensive by Qaddafi’s better-armed and better-trained ground troops.
“My view would be, if there is going to be that kind of assistance to the opposition, there are plenty of sources for it other than the United States,” Gates said.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he saw no contradiction between Gates’ remarks and Obama’s statement that “he has not ruled it in or out.”
As yet, none of Obama’s top advisers have publicly advocated a significant expansion of the US role aiding the opposition.
Gates and Mullen were early skeptics of getting involved militarily in Libya, and Gates made clear on Thursday that he still worries about the possibility of getting drawn into an open-ended and costly commitment. That explains in part his view that if the rebels are to receive foreign arms, that task — and the training that would necessarily go with it — should not be done by the US.
Gates said no one should be surprised by the US combat air pullback, but he called the timing “unfortunate” in light of Qaddafi’s battlefield gains. He said that the air attacks are a central feature of the overall military strategy; over time they could degrade Qaddafi’s firepower to a point where he would be unable to put down a renewed uprising by opposition forces, he said.
Mullen and Gates stressed that even though powerful combat aircraft like the side-firing AC-130 gunship and the A-10 Thunderbolt, used for close air support of friendly ground forces, will stop flying after today, they will be on standby. Mullen said this means that if the rebels’ situation become “dire enough,” NATO’s top commander could request help from the US aircraft.
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