It might be messy and built on the fly in the fog of war, but the international mission in Libya is emerging as an acid test of US President Barack Obama’s multilateral worldview.
With the US depleted in blood and treasure following former US president George W. Bush’s “with us or against us” war in Iraq, Obama knows his nation is weary of war.
Obama vowed before coming to power to reboot US foreign policy and to wield soft power alongside US military might in concert with global partners.
That playbook guided the -approach to the Libyan operation, but sparked accusations in Washington and Europe that Obama had failed to lead and raised question marks about the mission’s goals.
After an initial US blitz with cruise missiles and military might, the hastily assembled Libya no-fly zone and civilian protection umbrella will in the coming days unusually see Europe to the fore and Washington in support.
Stephen Flanagan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said the operation held important implications for transatlantic relations.
“This could be an effective moment of multilateralism if it works, showing that Europe has stepped up and taken on some of the burden in an area where their interests are most acute and more immediate,” he said. “The downside is if it shows that not only is the European Union divided, but NATO is divided, and the Turks are throwing spanners in the works. It could show these coalitions are about as durable as the agreement on any given day.”
Obama’s preference for a coalition that now includes, France, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates among other partners, has come at some political cost.
Foreign policy critics have -demanded answers to questions such as: How long will the mission last? How will it end? What is the definition of success?
Some analysts also fear “mission creep” if Qaddafi clings to power despite the air assault on his forces.
However, Obama mounted a strong defense of his leadership in Libya on Saturday, saying swift US and allied action had headed off a civilian “bloodbath.”
“Our military mission in Libya is clear and focused. We’re succeeding in our mission,” Obama said.
However, some Republicans that have denounced the president for being too slow to act now lash Obama for deploying Americans under a UN mandate.
Possible Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has hammered Obama for a “timid and nuanced” policy, delegated to the UN and the Arab League.
However, Obama aides say the mission is clear: to head off a humanitarian disaster, but to avoid weeks of US forces in action in more Muslim territory.
The US decision to thrust its allies into the lead also seems distilled from a hard-nosed judgment that vital US interests may be less at stake in Libya than in the turmoil in Yemen and Bahrain.
White House spokesman Jay Carney described the US as the “principal actor” in the coalition, but only for a while, as NATO prepares to take full command.
The Libya operation has become a test of transatlantic relations amid disquiet in Washington at the scale of European defense cuts and doubts about the capacity or willingness of some US partners to fight.
Some of the problems the coalition has encountered — wrangles about the scope of action and war aims — come with the territory of a broad grouping of diverse, North American, European and Arab nations.
The speed of the Libyan action, which unfolded during just a few weeks, also meant complicated “command and control” issues were left unresolved.
Then the egos and the agendas of leaders like Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron come into play, as do the regional sensitivities of Turkey, NATO’s only Muslim-majority member.
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