Reports noted that as the Libyan military uses air power to quash the rebellion, and intensifies its military campaign against the rebels, the United States is now weighing in on all the response options it has to oust Gaddafi. US has been warning about a possible civil war if Gaddafi did not quit. In view of this, the US has been looking for options that it could exercise to normalize the situation in Libya.1 Rebel commanders have been begging for American strikes on troops and weapons that have turned on civilians and assaulted strongholds of the resistance. On Sunday, three prominent members of the United States Senate, from both major political parties, renewed the Senate’s call for consideration of enforcing a “no-flight” zone to ground the Libyan air force and prevent it from attacking its people. They also pressed the Obama administration for a more aggressive response, including supplying intelligence, arms and training to the rebels. Meanwhile, the US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and top commanders have warned of political fallout if America again attacks a Muslim nation, even to support a popular revolt. So military planners on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and in its field commands are considering a broad range of approaches, depending on how events play out in Libya and how tough the United States and its allies want to be.2

• 1. “US Warns of Civil War Unless Qaddafi Goes” Reuters, March 1, 2011 at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/01/us-libya-protests-idUSTRE71G0A...
• 2. “U.S. Weighs Options, On Air and Sea” The New York Times, March 6, 2011 at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/world/middleeast/07military.html