Quote:
Originally Posted by ZenGum
We - well, you guys, technically - bombed them in I think 1986.
It didn't work. Gadafi lived and stayed in power, and replied with the Lockerbie bombing.
|
The purpose was not to defeat him militarily. Air power cannot create any military victory. The attack very successfully changed his international agenda from overt terrorism to trying to becoming an African power broker. At least that was his attempt.
Subpoint - notice how ineffective carriers were to a nation whose infrastructure and most all population were exposed on the coast. Most of the attack had to be launched from Britain using one of America's worst planes, the F-111. Carrier's mostly performed protection for those F-111s. This paragraph is about what everyone should have known even that long ago. Carriers are not a massive weapons. Are mostly hyped by myths to be feared.
Air power cannot defeat anyone. The Libyan attack is best considered a diplomatic foray. It successfully changed his political aspirations. Nothing more. It was a powerful diplomatic message. Nothing more should have been expected from those attacks.