Early Sunday, Feb. 27, US President Barack Obama called on Libyan ruler Col. Muammar Qadaffy to leave now, having lost the legitimacy to rule since "his only means of staying in power is to use violence against his own people," and the UN Security Council's 15 members unanimously slapped down wide-reaching sanctions on members of his family and regime commanders, calling for an immediate International Criminal Court probe of Qaddafi, his seven sons and daughter and military commanders, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.In Libya, former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil has established a provisional government in Benghazi.
American, European and possibly Arab forces may need to enforce the Security Council resolution because, unlike Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, the Libyan ruler, according to debkafile's military and Middle East sources, is not about to go willingly.
He was fully prepared militarily for the challenge of popular dissent to his rule by creating a well-armed and trained paramilitary force of 20,000 loyal troops outside Libya's conventional army. He also laid up a war chest of many billions of petrodollars stashed out of reach of sanctions enforcers.
Living under the pressure of sanctions is not a new experience for Qaddafi who survived them for 20 years of his 41 years in power over his sponsorship of international terrorists. He also withstood an American bombardment of his residence in April 1986.
By dismantling and passing to Washington his nuclear weapons program in 2003, the Libyan ruler won another eight years in power. He believes he can escape international and American ire once again, although for the first time he has lost half his country and Western armies may appear on his doorstep at the invitation of the transitional government of Cyrenaica.