Nobody will shed any tears if Qaddaffi lost, but it is still unwise to be too blatant in taking liberties and deliberately overstepping your UN mandate. For one thing it will make others more wary about agreeing to one next time and may demand clearer wording and thus delay possible future UN action in similar situations.
The other issue would be practicality. How would a pilot know a ammo truck from one crammed with refugees trying to flee to the rebels? If your ROE is as loose as ‘anything civilian or military moving west is fair game’ it’s only a matter of time before one of your pilots blows up something they shouldnt have and bring on a media and political sh!tstorm.
Similar thing but even more risky in supporting rebel assaults on Qaddaffi controlled population centres. It will almost be a given that there will be collateral damage in such missions. How would you explain how one of your planes managed to kill a school full of kids helping the rebels attack a city when you were supposed to be safeguarding ALL civilians?
You make a lot of sense, but you assume that the planes aren’t guided by FACs on the ground. I think differently and I’m pretty sure that at least french & british teams are on the ground guiding the strikes, at least those near Benghazi and such.
Nic
Sign In
