First off, the mere fact Western allies—and especially the UK and France, who were the most gung-ho advocates for launching the air intervention—have now clearly loosened their conditions for bringing the war to an end is the direct consequence of Gaddafi and his army having withstood the combined power of NATO strikes and rebel offensives far better and longer than expected. As a result, figuring out a conflict-ending, face-saving scenario with Gaddafi still factored in has become obligatory for American and European leaders aching to find a ways of getting the costly campaign over with.
Second, the fact that those Western powers are now openly considering an outcome with Gaddafi still in Libya—though at least nominally out of power—clashes frontally with rebels’ rejection of the scenario as a non-starter tends to support claims Gaddafi’s backers have long made: to wit, that the insurgents exist as a military and political force due exclusively to Western backing, and as such will ultimately accept the conditions and do the bidding of foreign capitals providing them funds, arms, and air support. Gaddafi managing to remain in Libya, therefore, would not only allow him a safe and secure place from which to meddle with the country’s new government, but also give his anti-imperialist, anti-Western propaganda ranting a degree of credibility it never enjoyed before.
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