Last night, NATO ministers voted to accept a handover of responsibility from the US for the no fly zone and the naval arms embargo operations. They also voted in principle to form a committee of all coalition members to direct the political aspects of the war. No one knows how this committee will be structured or what kind of influence it will exercise on military operations. In fact, no one knows if NATO will ever vote such a committee into existence. It's what the didn't do that is significant; they refused to take control of combat operations directed against Gaddafi's ground forces. All they agreed to was that they would negotiate some more and that the ultimate goal was for NATO to take control.What's standing in the way? Germany and Turkey who are both opposed to any offensive operations against Gaddafi as well as being against regime change. Either country could scuttle a NATO plan to take control and at present, it is difficult to see how differences can be papered over to...(Read Full Post)