One chief benefit of helping a democratic uprising without sending your own “boots on the ground” is that people generally want to commit fewer atrocities on their own communities:
“I will be really relieved when we enter, but now I am really not sure how my family will act,” (Ahmed) Momen said. “I hope they don’t resist, because the people in there are my friends and family, and I don’t want them to die.”
That was reporting from outside the town of Bani Walid, where revolutionary fighters have surrounded one of Ghadafi’s last bastions:
Rebel military leaders said residents had told them that the two had fled, leaving behind a detachment up to 100 loyalist troops and local allies who have taken up positions in private houses in anticipation of a rebel attack.
“The main Gaddafi brigade left with Saif al-Islam,” said Abdullah Kenshil, the chief negotiator for the rebels, at a checkpoint north of the town. “We think there are 70 troops left there in the town, but there are other people with them.”
If the transitional government can take Bani Walid without major destruction and loss of life — and I think they can — then it augurs well for Sirte (Surt) and Sabha. It also won’t really matter if Ghadafi is caught or killed, because minimal bloodshed in this endgame phase of securing the country will go a long way toward building legitimacy for the new government and forestalling any counterrevolution.
Indeed, the tempo of (new) government operations is already decreasing. With Libyans already celebrating a soccer win under their new (old) flag, there’s no hurry to fight anymore:
“We are not in a rush to get into Sirte,” National Transitional Council spokesman Mohammad Zawawi told al-Jazeera. “It has no economic importance, and we are not going to lose casualties for it. We can cut supplies and wait, even more than a week.”
NATO seems to get this, and has targeted the mercenary core of Ghadafi’s remaining forces with PSYOPS:
One NATO leaflet directed at non-Libyans features a full color picture of a burning one-dinar note, with Gadhafi’s face on it. The caption reads in Arabic: “Non-Libyan fighters. This is the only money you will receive for continuing to endanger Libyan civilians!”
[...]
U.S., British, French and other allied aircraft taking part in NATO operations drop leaflets every couple of days and put out radio broadcasts in what is known in military jargon as “non-kinetic activities.”
The test now is whether the conflict can end with minimal fighting. At the very least, that is what the new government and its international allies are definitely trying to do.
