LIBYAN POSITION TOUGHENS – AT 11:01 P.M. ET:  Perhaps in reaction to Barack Obama's weakness and NATO's inability to wage effective military action without American leadership, the Libyan regime today toughened its terms.  From Reuters:

TRIPOLI - Muammar Gaddafi is the historical choice of the Libyan people and cannot be moved aside, his government said on Sunday, stepping back from earlier statements offering an election on his future role.

"Muammar Gaddafi is Libya's historical symbol, and he is above all political actions, above all political and tactical games," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said in a statement issued late on Sunday.

"In this current stage and in the future, Gaddafi is the historical choice which we cannot drop."

"As for the current and future Libya, it is up to the people and the leadership to decide it, and it is not up to the armed groups, nor up to NATO to decide it," the statement said.

Gaddafi, who has run his oil-producing country since coming to power in a military coup in 1969, is under pressure to relinquish power from rebels who rose up against his rule and from a NATO bombing campaign.

But cracks are emerging within the Western alliance too, with some NATO member states anxious about civilian casualties, the cost of the campaign and the fact Gaddafi has not been dislodged after more than three months of air strikes.

Libya's rebel leadership in its eastern stronghold of Benghazi has said it is in indirect contact with Gaddafi's government, raising the possibility of a political settlement to the conflict, which has killed thousands of people.

But the government spokesman said in the statement that talk of a deal was premature.

COMMENT:  Unbelievable, just unbelievable.  Obama initially said that Gaddafi had to go.  It's three months later.  He's still there.  The world watch as Obama delivers a "pullout" speech on Afghanistan, saying America must come home to rebuild our own country.  No wonder the Libyan regime is getting tougher.  They're up against a marshmallow, who decides military policy based on polls.

What a pathetic situation.  Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like a lion.  And the Republicans have not been much help.  There is an utter failure of leadership on foreign policy within the Republican Party, and the mush makers, the party's presidential candidates, haven't stepped in to provide that leadership.  The nerve of some of these people to invoke the name of Ronald Reagan.  Reagan wasn't perfect, and he made his share of mistakes, but he had a clear view of America's role in the world, and he pursued it through to the successful end of the Cold War. 

Margaret Thatcher warned us against "going wobbly."  Wobbly?  We're tripping and rolling down the street, politically drunk and directionless.

June 26, 2011