Is it the end of the end?

• Author: Jones, David T

Is It the End of the End?

by David T. Jones

As of the 2 October weekend, the last Gadhafi remnant loyalists are playing Stalingrad (or Custer's last stand) in his Sirte birthplace. Simultaneously, Western leaders, including USG officials, are paying homage to the new Libyan leadership in Tripoli and endorsing their occupancy of the Libya seat in the UN General Assembly. In the detritus of Gaddafi's private residential compounds, the mounds of Libyan bureaucratic records, and the cemeteries of those he killed, there is evidence of the final throes of the regime. Separately, media recounts the escape of his wife and several children to Algeria while other family members and senior officials have slipped into Niger.

Is this finally the end for the odious colonel who remains somewhere at large, ostensibly attempting to rally these remnants while broadcasting variously willingness to reach agreement with the victors and/or fight to the death?

Will he ultimately be rooted from a hidey-hole like Saddam Hussein and subjected to a show trial cum execution? Will it be a "Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid" last stand (as was the case for Saddam's sons) with his bullet-riddled body trophy hung from a lamp post?

Or could he find well-upholstered refuge in one of the bought-and-paid-for African states upon which he lavished funds for decades, defying International Court of Justice demands for his scalp? Does anyone expect him to arise like the mythical hidden imam from an oasis in the Libyan desert?

Whatever the outcome, it has been long in the offing. Either we massively miscalculated his powers of resistance and the fight-to-the-death commitment of his native tribesmen; massively miscalculated our ability to win victory from the air; or misled our populations regarding the circumstances. Whatever we call "victory" will require more than a "move on; nothing here to look at" official critique.

Let's take a moment to review the bidding:

First, Secretary of State Clinton denounced Gaddafi in the UN Human Rights Commission. His repression of the Libyan people was execrable and he must leave power.

Then, the United States worked with NATO allies in the UN to authorize a "no fly" zone over Libya to protect civilians.

Next, U.S. warplanes and those of France, the UK, and Canada attacked Libyan air bases and air defense radars/sites--after all a "no fly" zone implies your planes must be perfectly safe when flying over a country, hence destroying sites that might...