UK says be prepared for a "long haul" in Libya, calls for more US involvement

By Steve Hynd

On the day that the UK's unrepentantly neoconservative Defense Secretary, Liam Fox, is in the US to hold a presser with Bob Gates, back home his colleague the Foreign Secretary is warning Britons to prepare for a "long haul" in Libya...but there's no stalemate there, honest guv'nor!

Mr Hague told Cabinet that "the mission is going in the right direction but we need to prepare for the long haul" according to a Downing Street spokeswoman.

The Foreign Secretary told MPs the military situation "remains very fluid" and "it has not settled into a stalemate".

"Members will be aware of how much the situation in Misrata has changed over recent days, fighting has gone backwards and forwards on the western borders of Libya although there is a fairly static situation on what might be called the eastern front between Brega and Ajdabiyah.

"But it has not yet settled into what one would call a long-term stalemate."

Hague also told parliament there was no need for a new vote on the Libyan intervention now that the mission has morphed from a simple no-fly zone to boots on the ground, material aid and regime change. The man should do stand-up. Oh, wait.

Whatever happened to "days, not weeks"?

Meanwhile, the intrepid Fox, who has fled his London apartment in pants-wetting terror of Libyan reprisals yet still thinks it's bravely neocon-ish to tell Gaddafi that he'll be assassinated if he doesn't quit and that Libya is the new Afghanistan (no quagmire there, really, guv'nor!), is in the U.S. to beg Bob Gates to back deeper American involvement.

The defence secretary, Liam Fox, and General Sir David Richards, chief of defence staff, are in Washington to drum up what they fear is flagging US support for the military campaign in Libya, British government officials said on Tuesday.

In public they may appear confident, but in reality they are deeply concerned that weeks of almost daily air strikes, at an escalating cost, are not having a decisive impact on the ground, officials say.

Fox, meanwhile, is moving closer to saying that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi himself is a legitimate target, officials add. It is a suggestion Richards has distanced himself from in the past.

Fox and Richards are grateful that the US agreed last week to deploy armed unmanned Predator drones over Libya, but they would dearly like the US to bring back low-flying A10 tankbusters, as well as providing the rebels with more support, including military advisers, Whitehall officials say.

A conflict in the MiddleEast that's being compared to Afghanistan, is settling down for a "long haul" civil war and that neocons are gung-ho for (Fox himself is said to be "loving this crisis"). Oh sure, let's get deeper involved. What could possibly go wrong?