LIBYA ON THURSDAY – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  While the coalition air attacks have degraded some of the Libyan government's capability, they are far from destroying it.  In the meantime, there are increasing demands, including many issuing from the U.S. Congress, for some clarity, some vision of the objective...and some explanation of who will be running things:

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Coalition forces hit Libya for a sixth day early Thursday amid questions over the future of the international involvement in the effort to halt civilian attacks by the nation's forces.

So far, the coalition has crippled the Libyan air force and established a no-fly zone along the nation's coastline, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gerard Hueber said.

Allied forces gave no indication that ruler Moammar Gadhafi was complying with a United Nations mandate to stop attacks against civilians.

But a U.S. official said though the rebels are in a better position, the ruler's forces still have the upper edge.
They remain capable of carrying out attacks on the opposition, are relatively well-organized and continue to fight effectively, the official said.

And from The New York Times:

TRIPOLI, Libya — Despite ferocious allied airstrikes on Libyan ground forces, tanks and artillery, France, one of the principle western partners in the campaign against forces loyal to Muammar el-Qaddafi, said on Thursday that the effort could still take “days or weeks.”

Wait, wait.  Didn't Obama say we're handing over leadership of the effort within a few days?  Who's in charge?  After weeks of dithering, you'd think the president would have had the time to figure out a coherent war plan, with command-and-control firmly in place.

Of course, we hope we win this and that Qaddafi departs, one way or another.   But the whole effort seems like a blurred lens.

March 24, 2011