Former US ambassador: ‘offer Gaddafi way out to end Libyan bloodshed’

Writing in today’s Chicago Tribune, Douglas Kmiec poses the question if NATO should press to have the negotiation window reopened?

“Pope Benedict XVI thinks so, making the reasoned and reasonable case that no one actually 'wins' at war. Violence is always a defeat,” the former ambassador - a staunch Roman Catholic - said, adding that the situation remains volatile given the Transitional National Council being a “mixed bag of rebel competencies and opposing tribes.”

Kmiec writes: “Gaddafi remains in power with underlying tribal support, but far more tenuously than he likely anticipated with his usual bluster and bravado; from our side, the TNC, Libya's interim anti-Gaddafi government, has shown itself to be a mixed bag of rebel competencies and opposing tribes, with wild-card rumors of outside terror factions, which in these heightened times of instability can be counted on to sniff around the edges of tumult, especially in the Middle East. Thus far the bombing has assiduously avoided any serious damage to Libya's most bankable asset: its oil operations.”

In his assessment of the situation, Douglas Kmiec reasons that the outlines of a deal with Col. Gaddafi should be based on the premise that he is given a "hand-off" either by joining wife and children in Algeria, or staying in Libya on payment of substantial reparations for his death squad treatment of his political opposition and a promise that he and his immediate family members stay out of politics.

According to Kmiec, “the reparations ought not to be difficult for a man who extorted billions from the oil, hotel and retail establishments in his country for the last four decades.”

Douglas Kmiec  says that that another diplomatic option should be focused on keeping Col. Gaddafi out of his country's political future, even if this is almost impossible.

“It is more difficult to enforce, and might be near impossible, except for matters of international criminal justice. No prosecution for now, but violate the no-political interference pledge, and the hammer drops — not just for current crimes, but all of it, Lockerbie bombing and all.”

Kmiec, who resigned his post as ambassador in Malta earlier this year after being reprimanded by the State Department for his alleged ‘straying’ from US policy work to engage in Christian writings, insists that if the US and the international community’s goal is a democratic or at least less repressed Libya, “we likely need to find a way to save a good portion of the country from its unnecessary destruction.”

As to who would govern the new post-Gaddafi Libya, Kmiec stands by President Barack Obama and secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statements that “it is for the Libyan people to decide,” adding however: “even if a newly formed government includes some who today remain loyal to Gaddafi.”

“This is what usually happens after armed conflict: Opposing sides, with proper pledges of integrity, become a single body politic. A diplomatic conclusion could make that possible — sooner rather than later.”

Kmiec also points out that the US still needs to formally recognise the TNC, while the administration considers Col. Gaddafi’s request to ‘negotiate’ a power handover as ‘delusional’.

“Meanwhile, the violence worsens with widespread reports of retaliation killings of rebel detainees by Gaddafi forces and rebel shootings of most anyone with a dark skin on the supposition that the person must be a Gaddafi-hired mercenary.”

Kmiec still argues that the continued NATO bombings are “indispensable” to assist the rebels in securing control of the country.