"More drones... to protect civilians?". A brief update on the Libya war.

Civilians training in Tripoli

As the operation "United Protector" keep going on, after 100 days of war with 12,000 sorties flown in 5,000 attack missions and hit over 2,400 targets NATO asked US to provide more drones: "It's getting more difficult to find stuff to blow up," said a senior NATO officer, noting that Kadafi's forces are increasingly using civilian facilities to carry out military operations. "Predators really enable you study things and to develop a picture of what is going on." Panetta has emphasized that winning the war in Libya is one of his top priorities. His predecessor, Robert M. Gates, had urged European allies to do more and had stressed that the U.S. military was overstretched.The Pentagon's willingness to consider strengthening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization force in Libya marks an apparent shift since Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta took over the Pentagon early this month. Given that the UN mandate was about protecting civilians and not conducting an offensive attack the contradiction with CIA Director's statements is obvious. For how can one claim victory when serving a protective role? As Colonel Roland Lavoie, military spokesman for Operation Unified Protector confirmed in his Press Conference on 26/7: "I would like to say that it's not the NATO... the NATO mission is not about winning or losing. It's about basically saving lives. NATO has no intent of taking Brega or any other cities. We are basically monitoring the situation and acting where it is required to prevent attacks on civilians or to prevent a build-up of military capabilities that could stop humanitarian aid, for example".

"Recently NATO admitted civilian casualties, the Libya's Ministry of Health reported that during the first 100 days of NATO targeting of civilians, 6121 were killed or injured, HRW reported abuses inflicted on civilians by the rebels that were verified by an eye - witness journalist while a mass grave of brutalized bodies of regime's forces was discovered and the US Admiral Samuel J. Locklear has confirmed that NATO forces are trying to kill Muammar Qaddafi.