Removing Gaddafi is key

The question of whether Gaddafi should be targeted and what the exit strategy should be in Libya are intimately linked. In truth, there is no exit strategy that does not involve Gaddafi’s fall from power. As long as he is there, the threat to those that the international community is now pledged to protect will remain. Even a de facto partition of Libya with Gaddafi in charge of the west and the rebels the east would require — at least — an over the horizon presence to ensure that Gaddafi did not attempt to raid across the line or invade the east.

At the moment, the British government appears to be relying on Gaddafi being toppled by his own military in an act of self-preservation. Certainly, the longer Gaddafi stays in power, the more Libyan military units will be taken out by allied air strikes.  

But if the military, or other regime insiders, do not remove Gaddafi then things become far more complicated.