Professor Juan Cole, Middle East specialist at the University of Michigan, today lists the Top Ten Accomplishments of the UN No-Fly Zone. He states that the "liberation movement" probably controls about half the country's people, and if it can retake three important locations (Brega and Ra’s Lanouf and Zawiya), Qaddafi won't have gasoline or money to continue his reprisals. He also points out that NATO has begun a naval blockade of weapons shipments to Qaddafi.
Cole cites these accomplishments of the no-fly zone:
1. "The measure was called for by the Arab League, which has not in fact changed its mind about its desirability. Qatar is expected to be flying missions over Libya by this weekend. Other Arab League countries will give logistical support."
2. Turkey has agreed to use its navy to help enforce the boycott on the Qaddafi regime and has called on Qaddafi to step down.
3. Qaddafi’s air force, which had been bombing cities, effectively “no longer exists.”
4. Tobruk, a city of 120,000 with a major petroleum depot, is no longer "in danger of being attacked and its inhabitants massacred."
5. Benghazi, "the stronghold of the Libyan freedom movement" with 700,000 people, has been saved from being bombarded and conquered.
6. "Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city with a population of 670,000, was given a brief reprieve Wednesday afternoon when United Nations allies bombed pro-Qaddafi tank positions and the aviation academy outside the city. At night, the surviving tanks crept into the city and bombarded its center, including a hospital with 400 patients in it! All through Wednesday, pro-Qaddafi snipers took a toll on pedestrians in the downtown area. Still, the cessation of the bombardment for many hours benefited the city, which could easily have seen many times the 16 dead killed by Qaddafi’s thugs. The bombardment had ceased again early Thursday morning."
7. The no-fly zone allowed an aid ship to land at Misrata with medicines.
8. Zintan, the desert city southwest of Tripoli, gained a brief respite until tanks attacked again late Wednesday.
9. The strategically important major oil city of Ajdabiya is now a contest between the "freedom movement amateur fighters and the rump pro-Qaddafi armored brigades." If a no-drive zone is enforced by the UN allies, it is questionable how long the pro-Qaddafi forces can hold out.
10. "Now that Benghazi is not being aerially bombed nor besieged by tanks and heavy artillery, the liberation movement’s leadership has been able to meet and announce a transitional governing council." They insist that Tripoli is the capital of Libya and the governing council is not a new, separatist government.
Cole concludes that critics of the UN action in Libya are being "willfully blind" to these early accomplishments of the no-fly zone.