World

West plays 'hot potato' with Libyan crisis

By Tian Wenlin (peopledaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-04-12 15:29

As the Libyan war reaches a stalemate, there have been increasingly louder calls for a peaceful solution to the current crisis through dialogue in the international community. Emerging countries, such as Turkey, South Africa and Russia, as well as European countries, such as Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, have all called for a resolution to the current crisis through peaceful dialogues.

The war has brought about too many uncertainties. Like many "unexpected consequences" that emerged in the aftermath of the U.S. military attack against Iraq, the military attack against Libya launched by the United Kingdom, France and the United States has also come across several "unexpected circumstances."

The first of these surprises is the resilience of Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Second is the weakness of the Libyan opposition. It was too early for the West to put a bet on the rebels. Particularly, France prematurely terminated its diplomatic ties with the Gaddafi administration, leaving no room for reconciliation between the two sides.

Thereafter, the West had expected the opposition to win and overthrow Gaddafi's regime, so they could get paid at odds of 2-1 on winning their political bets.

Unexpectedly, the military forces of the opposition were fractured, lacking a single command, necessary training and access to heavy weapons.

Therefore, they were often defeated by the government forces and could only come to a stalemate with the government under the West's air support.

Currently, the Libyan war has become a "hot potato" for the West.

First, the West cannot afford the war economically and strategically. Waging high-tech wars is like "burning money." The war is too heavy to afford for the European countries and the United States, which have not completely emerged out of the economic crisis. The longer the war is, the more countries in the West will find themselves at a disadvantage.