NOTES ON A ROAD RALLY REVOLUTION

By H. N. Burdett

Television footage of Libya's civil war suggests a road rally where lethal weapons are fired at invisible targets more than it does an actual revolution.

Absent air support to knock out or at least slow down government troops intent upon quelling the opposition's advance towards Tripoli, the ragtag rebels have no viable option other than to retreat. Until NATO gets its act together or another nation unilaterally steps in to re-energize anti-government forces, the revolution can be charitably characterized as in a state of flux.

Meanwhile, there does not appear to be a no-fly zone for opinions in the United States Congress regarding the Obama administration's role in what history may recount as either a long-oppressed citizenry rising up to achieve their freedom, or a tragic farce, a firecracker that went unlit for lack of a match.

With yet another interminably long presidential election campaign gearing up, potential Republican nominees change their minds about what the United States should be doing in Libya as frequently as the rest of us change our socks. The only unity among the nominal loyal opposition seems to be that whatever course of action the Obama administration espouses is wrong.

For his part, the president is now chastised for a perceived multitude of missteps ranging from appalling lack of clarity to rank timidity in dealing with the uprising in Libya.

Obama is in a difficult position to say the least. Libya serves no direct national interest of the United States, which does not rely on that north African nation's rich oil resources. At the same time, the president feels a moral responsibility to prevent the horrific carnage Colonel Qaddafi can be reliably predicted to reap upon those who would depose him in the wake of more than 40 years of tyrannical misrule.

Beyond what the Obama administration calls a humanitarian mission for the protection of oppressed Libyan citizens -- one involving more than 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired at government forces, as well as bombing and strafing of government troops -- the White House would clearly rather defer further action to NATO.

"I don't know why the administration has not been honest with the American people that this is regime change," thundered Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colorado, who added: "This is just the most muddled definition of an operation probably in U.S. military history."

Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, Obama's GOP opponent in the 2008 presidential election, weighed in by calling the decision to call off U.S. airstrikes in Libya "a profound mistake with potentially disastrous consequences." Reminding us of the president's call for Qaddafi's ouster, McCain fervently believes that rather than hand off the assignment of taking down the dictator, the U.S. should be front and center in that effort.

Even as politicians second-guess Obama's policy in Libya, or lack thereof, CIA operatives are reportedly on the ground in that beleaguered land to cobble together an assessment of the situation, including what may be needed to finish the job of finishing Qaddafi.

The focal point of the evaluation is nothing less than the historic problem with virtually all revolutions: the kind of phoenix that might rise from the ashes. All too fresh in our memory is the painful fact that Osama Bin Laden and his followers were among the freedom fighters the United States armed in their effort to drive Soviet troops from Afghanistan some 30 years ago. Moreover, the United States is already quite obviously over-extended with its military interventions in two other Moslem countries.

Perhaps mitigating the harrowing prospect of Qaddafi's army gaining traction and pushing back the rebels hard enough to dispel their faintest hope for victory are the recent defections from the dictator's inner circle. The road rally revolution compounded with the strong man's former confidants forming a circular firing squad might indeed hasten the day of reckoning in Libya.

But the enormous question mark as to what will emerge from the Libyan revolution is not erased. Will there be a democratic government resolved to carry out the will of the people and ensure the freedom they have been denied by a brutal and corrupt despot for more than four decades? Or will the Tripoli palace be turned over to yet another incarnation of evil, perhaps no less vile or bloodthirsty than the current occupant?

In his renowned dissent in United States v. Abrams of November 10, 1919, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: "Every year if not every day we wage our salvation upon some prophecy based on imperfect knowledge." Holmes's wisdom could hardly have been lost on the cerebral former law professor who is determined to renew his four-year lease on the White House.