Timidity can cost lives, in war and in diplomacy.
The US and Nato, therefore, were right to intervene in Libya. Muammar Gaddafi’s forces were at the gates of Benghazi, hours away from overrunning the city and brutally ending the Libyan people’s struggle for freedom.
Libyans and allies of the US are watching the debate between President Barack Obama and Congress over who has authority to authorise this mission – which the House has declined to give the president – and whether the president can continue military support.
The opposition leaders in Libya, the Transitional National Council, (TNC) understand that this debate must be resolved internally.
But separate from the war powers debate, Obama could give the TNC much of what it needs with one diplomatic stroke. The power to recognise successor governments of foreign states lies solely with the executive branch.
Obama has already recognised the TNC as “the legitimate interlocutor of the Libyan people”.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has met with TNC leaders, has said the TNC is the institution through which the US government “engages” the Libyan people.
France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and others have given some level of recognition.
When the president’s top diplomat for the Middle East, Assistant Secretary of State Jeff Feltman, visited Benghazi this month, he found a sense of joy, opportunity and gratitude to the US unlike anything he had seen in his diplomatic career.
“The TNC seems sincere in its commitment to building an inclusive, democratic Libya that is a partner with us,” he wrote. “And they are working to build functioning, accountable institutions from scratch, in the midst of a conflict.”
Feltman noted the contrast with the Gaddafi regime, which has vowed to hunt down “like rats” anyone who opposes the colonel.
But the State Department mandate remains unclear.
US officials acknowledge Gaddafi forces burned down the US Embassy in Tripoli. Yet they continue to stall on providing full diplomatic recognition to the TNC.
Why wait?
Self-determination is an American ideal. We should provide the diplomatic recognition the TNC needs so Libyans can win their freedom with their own money and on their own terms.
l Tafuri, a State Department official from 2006 to 2007, is a partner at Patton Boggs and serves as legal counsel to the Transitional National Council of Libya. – Washington Post-Bloomberg