Amidst the carnage in the Middle East and Japan, General Petreaus gave evidence to the US Senate Armed Forces Committee on continuing operations in Afghanistan yesterday. Behind his measured positivity lie hints of impending strategic failure, writes former Royal Irish Regiment Captain Patrick Bury.
The alternative to military action to take out Gaddafi is to stand aside and watch as the tyrant perpetrates a massacre of his own people and Libya risks collapsing into a failed state.
War, the eminent theorist Carl Von Clausewitz tells us, is essentially about mass and momentum; the Libyan rebels retreating from the oil rich town of Brega toward Ajdabiya appear to lack both, writes former Army Captain Patrick Bury.
Leading figures from across the political spectrum have joined together to call on the European Union to reflect on the lessons of the fall of Communism two decades ago when considering how to respond to the current wave of revolutions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.
William Hague has come under increasing pressure in the last few weeks, criticised for a series of blunders over Libya, Egypt and the whole Middle East, culminating in the disastrous SAS mission.
As the Gaddafi regime continues to murder, maim and terrorise the Libyan people, a poll today shows a small majority in favour of using military force to prevent foreign leaders launching attacks against their own people.
Tony Dykes of Action for Southern Africa asks if the focus on aid – how much, and who to – is the right one, and asks for the decision to cut the UK aid budget to Lesotho be reviewed.
There is continued confusion today over where the government, or even the prime minister himself, stands over foreign policy in general and Libya in particular.
Tory MP Andrew Tyrie has written to William Hague demanding the Department for International Development foots the bill for the BBC World Service – and slammed his own party’s ring-fencing of the aid budget.
The Department for International Development (DFID) today unveiled the results of a review into UK aid – Left Foot Forward outlines the main policy goals and reaction.
