Atlantic Council blogs

Update: NATO activities in Libya on June 18

By NATO

NATO acknowledges civilian casualties in Tripoli strike

By NATO

From NATO:  NATO says that a military missile site was the intended target of air strikes in Tripoli last night. However, it appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target and that there may have been a weapons system failure which may have caused a number of civilian casualties.  “NATO regrets the loss […]

Gates’s parting shot exposes Europe’s military failings

By Charlemagne, the Economist

From Charlemagne, the Economist:  Three months into the war in Libya, and confident talk of Muammar Qaddafi’s forces being broken by NATO’s bombs is being accompanied by worries that the alliance itself is feeling the strain of a prolonged campaign. The British naval chief says that, if the war drags on beyond the autumn, he […]

Looking Back, Gates Says He’s Grown Wary of ‘Wars of Choice’

By Thom Shanker and Elisabeth Bumiller, the New York TImes

From Thom Shanker and Elisabeth Bumiller, the New York TImes:  Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, as he prepared to depart the government for the second time, said in an interview on Friday that the human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had made him far more wary

Update: NATO activities in Libya on June 17

By NATO

The action in Libya looks like war to us

By the Editors of the Washington Post

From the Editors of the Washington Post:  The Obama administration’s depiction of its Libya venture as too halfhearted to be covered by the War Powers Resolution contains an unfortunately large dollop of truth.

Libya and the Potemkin alliance

By George F. Will, the Washington Post

From George F. Will, the Washington Post:  America’s intervention in Libya’s civil war, the most protracted and least surreptitious assassination attempt in history, was supposed to last “days, not weeks,” but is in its fourth month

Obama rejects views of 2 top lawyers in Constitutional debate over Libya conflict

By Charlie Savage, the New York Times

From Charlie Savage, the New York Times:  President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization

Why Europe no longer matters

By Richard N. Haas, the Washington Post

From Richard N. Haas, the Washington Post:  In the coming decades, Europe’s influence on affairs beyond its borders will be sharply limited, and it is in other regions, not Europe, that the 21st century will be most clearly forged and defined.