A Libyan holds a portrait of Muammar Gaddafi at a naval base in Tripoli damaged by coalition air strikes.ZOHRA BENSEMRA
Creating the no-fly zone is done. Wiping out the remnants of Libya's ragged air force is done. Pulverizing the armoured spearhead pointed at Benghazi is done. And making a smoking hole out of Moammar Gadhafi's command-and-control headquarters in Tripoli is also done.
Libya has become a "target-poor" environment, much like Afghanistan in the first hectic days of air strikes in 2001. U.S., British, and French warplanes are already returning to bases with their bombs still strapped to their wings. Canada's CF-18s brought their bomb load back undropped Thursday and have yet to fire.
A narrow reading of UN Security Council Resolution 1973 would suggest the war's limited objectives have been all but reached. It's over. But the unwritten and unspoken target may be Colonel Gadhafi himself.
"Regime change," the war aim that dare not speak its name because it is so closely associated with George W. Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, may in fact be the exit strategy. Politicians who dare say so come under fire - even from their own generals.
Killing Col. Gadhafi "would potentially be a possibility," said British Defence Secretary Liam Fox, adding the Libyan leader is a "legitimate target."
"Absolutely not. It is not allowed under the UN resolution and it is not something I want to discuss any further," retorted General David Richards, Britain's top soldier.
While generals and their political masters are sparring over the war's rules, the countries doing the bombing - Britain, France, the United States and (soon) Canada - can't agree on a command structure. Opposition from Germany and Turkey means it can't be a "NATO war" like the Kosovo campaign in 1999. Italy accuses France of wanting to lead so it can secure oil contracts with a new Libya while Italy gets stuck with the wave of postwar refugees.
Currently, the Americans are commanding more or less by default and because they are providing most of the firepower and have the skills, the ships, the spy planes and the intelligence to run the war. President Barack Obama, seeking the lowest-possible profile, says he wants to hand off leadership within days.
So it's no surprise then, that Canada's Defence Minister, Peter Mackay, expects the mission will "evolve." It must, because it is pretty clear that the countries pounding what's left of Libya's military haven't agreed on the command structure, the objectives or the way out.
Mr. Obama says Col. Gadhafi, a terrorist-sponsoring international pariah until he was brought in from the cold a few years ago, "must go" - but that's not what the war is for.
"Our military action … specifically focuses on the humanitarian threat posed by Col. Gadhafi to his people," Mr. Obama said, even as he confirmed that "it is U.S. policy that Gadhafi needs to go."
Killing him by "accident," should he make the mistake of getting into a tank or visiting a command bunker just before the next salvo of cruise missiles, wouldn't be outlawed under the Security Council mandate. Rather, he would simply be "collateral damage," an unfortunate and unplanned consequence of a legal military intervention.
Allied warplanes could conceivably patrol Libyan skies without encountering a Libyan jet or being targeted by Libyan surface-to-air missiles for months, perhaps years. In Iraq, the no-fly zone lasted a dozen years without Saddam Hussein being ousted, tried and executed. When he was, it was after a full-blown invasion that put the boots of more than 100,000 U.S. troops on the ground.
Already a divided Libya is taking shape. The eastern half, with Tobruk, Benghazi, most of the oil fields and ports, is in the hands of the rebels - also known as a transitional government already recognized by Paris. In the west, Col. Gadhafi holds sway.
U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, who commands the allied warships that have fired more than 160 cruise missiles at Libyan targets, laid out quite carefully Tuesday what Col. Gadhafi needs to do before the shooting stops. "If Col. Gadhafi … would have a ceasefire implemented; stop all attacks against citizens and withdraw from the places that we've told him to withdraw; establish water, electricity and gas supplies to all areas and allow humanitarian assistance, then the fighting would stop. Our job would be over."
Benghazi is safe, said the admiral. But in Zawiyah, Ajdabiya and Misurata, three embattled coastal cities where fighting continues between forces loyal to Col. Gadhafi and those trying to oust him, the "withdrawal" hasn't occurred.