Help the Benghazi Rebels Help Themselves

As the weekend fades from view and we are shown again and again the charred tanks and abandoned weapons of Qadhaffi’s military and the rejoicing relief of the Free Libya fighters of Benghazi, we may wonder what is next.

The current stand-off cannot continue. One side or the other will finally seize an opportunity and prevail.

What the UN and its members hoped for in adopting Resolution 1973 was that the Free Libya movement would be protected from Qadhaffi’s mercenaries by international intervention. This has been accomplished.

What the world hoped for with Resolution 1973 was that Qadhaffi would finally be brought to justice for his 42 years of organized terror and violence against his own people. This has not been accomplished yet.

The UN, the international coalition, the Arab League - need now to ask, what is the next step?

To end the active part of the coalition’s effort in a stalemate, in which Free Libya sits in Benghazi and Qadhaffi hides somewhere on the other side of Libya near Tripoli, is not sustainable. One or the other will win.

It seems elementary that Free Libya needs weapons and equipment so that it can march toward Tripoli, making its case with the Libyan people that it will better represent them and their aspirations than Qadhaffi did or ever will. That case cannot be made from Benghazi. It cannot be made while Free Libya waits. It cannot be made while Qadhaffi, weakened but undefeated, still controls the bulk of Libya and its administration.

If international military are not to be permitted on the ground in Libya, then the UN and the Arab League need to decide who will be permitted. Will it be just humanitarian aid workers, or will it be representatives of the international community who can help organize Free Libya without imposing its ideas of governmental models. These representatives could advance the cause of Free Libya by explaining the use of the weapons delivered, by showing the best ways to organize a military front, by advising the Benghazi committee which is trying to pull the separate rebel groups together and build a cohesive unit.

Now is not the time, as the old saying goes, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.