Libya, and the Australian Defence Force

Western politicians and military leaders need to understand very clearly that the defeat of the Gaddafi regime in Libya represents a major achievement for advanced air power. NATO’s campaign deserves careful study.

It is true that, ultimately, revolutionary soldiers from Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) had to capture urban centres through close-up, street-by-street, house-by-house combat. That the Libyan people won the final victory was as it should be. If any one message has been spelled out loud and clear from the West’s disastrous invasions of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, it is that political and social change cannot be engineered by occupying (foreign) armies – it must be brought about in its own good time by the local population.