--- title: Command Post: Was it Right For the U.S. to Formally Recognize the Libyan Rebels? | TIME description: Was it right for the United States to formally recognize the rebels in Libya before the conflict is resolved? A discussion with TIME and the Center for a New American Security. canonical: https://time.com/video/7v1xSdX1/ og:title: Command Post: Was it Right For the U.S. to Formally Recognize the Libyan Rebels? og:description: Was it right for the United States to formally recognize the rebels in Libya before the conflict is resolved? A discussion with TIME and the Center for a New American Security. og:url: https://time.com/video/7v1xSdX1/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7v1xSdX1/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Command Post: Was it Right For the U.S. to Formally Recognize the Libyan Rebels? twitter:description: Was it right for the United States to formally recognize the rebels in Libya before the conflict is resolved? A discussion with TIME and the Center for a New American Security. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7v1xSdX1/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Command Post: Was it Right For the U.S. to Formally Recognize the Libyan Rebels? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Command Post: Was it Right For the U.S. to Formally Recognize the Libyan Rebels? [Watch (HLS stream): Command Post: Was it Right For the U.S. to Formally Recognize the Libyan Rebels?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7v1xSdX1.m3u8) (6:12)  _Published 2011-08-10. Was it right for the United States to formally recognize the rebels in Libya before the conflict is resolved? A discussion with TIME and the Center for a New American Security._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:16 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Know Right Now: Presbyterian Church Recognizes Gay Marriage](/video/R4ZTR6OY/) ### Know Right Now: Presbyterian Church Recognizes Gay Marriage [Command Post: Why No U.S. Ground Troops in LIbya?](/video/V1qiTfPo/) ### Command Post: Why No U.S. Ground Troops in LIbya? [Command Post: Why the U.S. Backed off from Leading the Libya Campaign](/video/k7EIIWQD/) ### Command Post: Why the U.S. Backed off from Leading the Libya Campaign --- ## Transcript This is Command Post, a series of discussions about military matters from TIME and the Center for a New American Security. Paul, you've written recently that it was right for the United States to recognize the Libyan rebels. Can, can you talk about why you feel that way? It is time for the United States and the rest of the a the other countries this a, this contact group to step up and provide a meaningful context, a meaningful framework within which they can work with the rebels. We want Gaddafi out, okay. We want the will of the people of Libya to be voiced. But it, we want it done obviously through a democratically- based framework of some sort. That the Libyans will figure out. But by dragging our feet and not making a, a, a, an form of recognition. It was hindering this campaign to get Gaddafi out. And now that they have actually voiced it, and said we recognized the national transitional council as the legitimate authority until an interim government is established. That provides the, the cover if you will, the political cover for a lot of other things to happen, the releasing of funds, the discussions about how others can help visits to Benghazi, to talk to people. I mean, we've had people on the ground in Benghazi now, talking with emerging civil society groups because of the need for post conflict stabilization activities that must go on. Those sorts of things could not have happened absent some kind of declaration. And I think that it clarifies American policy. As I said earlier, it was a very mushy policy. It now clarifies American policy. We are actively going to seek the removal of, of Gaddaffi. Why do you think it took us five months to come to this determination. Well I think that it was a lot of unknowns and uncertainty. Uncertainty at the strategic sense with out allies. How many are going to put skin in the game? We've seen an increasing amount of commitment to it from Nordic countries, from from France, and from the British. But when Italy began to make noise about stopping the bombing, and I can understand Italy has a lot of interest what goes on in Libya. If you've ever been to the Libyan, or to the refugee camps in Italy, you'll see why. When we saw them begin to make noise about, you know, stop the bombing and let's negotiate something that puts at risk not just the rebels. It puts at risk NATO. You know, NATO had undertaken a combat operation now. And the ability of NATO to influence activities and and issues in the Mediterranean basis from or basin from now on it becomes a problem, you know. Who would put any credibility behind NATO? If they said we've got concerns with something going on in Egypt, for example, or in the Balkans or whatever. Everybody'd say it's NATO, they don't mean anything. Look what they did in Libya. NATO must succeed in this if we intend to keep NATO as a dominant alliance partner, you know, for us. But in clarifying the strategic goals of NATO it now clarifies the strategic goals of the United States. And I think it makes a clearer for the domestic discussion as to what we are going to do with regards to Libya now. Excuse, do you agree with the decision to recognize the Libyan rebels. Yeah I do because when you look at U. S. Military doctrine, wars don't proceed, you know, by phase through each theater. So we are not in major combat operations and then we move to post conflict reconstruction and stabilization. It is not as neat as that. Post conflict reconstruction stabliztion cant wait for Libya to fall. It can't wait for the entire shooting campaingn to be over. And that especially if you think that this campaign is gonna drag on for awhile. If it is gonna last for more then a few weeks, then the time to start post- conflict reconstruction and stabilization in a place like Benghazi is right now, or is more accurately, two months ago. And so it's important, I think, to recognize the the, the rebel leadership to go ahead and get resources coming in to to eastern Libya to get trainers and experts and and specialists, and rule of law, and police trainers. And all the things you're gonna need for you know, and keep in mind, Libya's not like Egypt. It's not it's not that we had really strong institutions and now we just gotta conduct security sector reform. And I would add that it's not just security related. They're going to need help in developing good governance institutions, political parties, things like that. And developing a rule of law that is based on the constitution, whatever that constitution might be to rebuilding a sustainable economy and getting the social well being status, at least, stabilized for the citizens of Libya. If all of those five things don't come together, it will be a destabilized country and that doesn't help us, long term, with what we're trying to see happen in Egypt or Indonesia. Libya sits between the two of them and could easily become a spoiler for both of those countries if Libya remains a destabilized entity. I mean I think one of the things that has come home to Europeans in terms of immigration is that the Mediterranean world doesn't really stop at the edges of North Africa. It stops at the Sahara and that these economies, these countries of the Mediterranean world, they're, they're interlinked and they share a similar a similar labor market, similar other share of markets. This really is a responsibility for the, the other countries within the Mediterranean world. And I think it's, it's reasonable and there's precedent that would lead us to expect, that countries other than the United States would contribute to to post conflict Libya. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Command Post: Was it Right For the U.S. to Formally Recognize the Libyan Rebels?","description":"Was it right for the United States to formally recognize the rebels in Libya before the conflict is resolved? 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