Cynical French, a naive PM, foolish MPs. This Libyan misadventure will end in tears

By Max Hastings

Last updated at 1:16 PM on 13th July 2011
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There was a particularly bleak moment for NATO’s mission in Libya, and especially for the British Government which has led the charge against Colonel Gaddafi, in Paris on Monday. The French defence minister declared that military action against Libya is not working, and it is time to talk.

Gerard Longuet said: ‘We must now sit around a table. We will stop bombing as soon as the Libyans start talking to one another and the military on both sides go back to their bases.’ M. Longuet suggested that Gaddafi might be able to remain in Libya, ‘in another room of the palace, with another title’.

Following the Frenchman’s remarks, the British Government hastened to distance itself from his position. David Cameron and his colleagues remain insistent that regime change is the only acceptable outcome of the Libyan conflict. But it is quite another day’s work whether Britain still commands the support of its allies for this lofty position.


In Paris on Monday, the French defence minister, Gerard Longuet, declared that military action against Libya is not working, and it is time to talk

Italy’s leader, Silvio Berlusconi, asserted recently that he had never backed the war. There are real fears that the Italian government, which favours negotiation with the Tripoli regime, will withdraw consent for the use of its air bases, from which RAF and other strike aircraft currently bomb Gaddafi’s army.

The Americans have never been enthusiastic about the Libyan entanglement. Sure, they hate Gaddafi, but they regard this as a wholly unwelcome diversion from U.S. strategic priorities — such countries as Yemen, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan.

An American general demanded in my hearing not long after this business began: ‘Just how many fronts do we want?’

Yesterday, a shrewd veteran British foreign policy-maker suggested to me there was a danger the NATO alliance will break up over Libya.

He said he finds it deeply disturbing that the Germans, one of the most powerful Western nations, had flatly refused to participate in the operation, while the Americans declined to lead it.

‘I am beginning to wonder’, he said, ‘whether there will be American troops in Europe in five years’ time. Remember how Europeans welcomed Obama three years ago, because they were convinced he was “their kind of Presidentâ€