The Last Days of Qaddafi

The New York Times: 

American and European militaries intensified their barrage of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces by air and sea on Sunday, as the mission moved beyond taking away his ability to use Libyan airspace, to obliterating his hold on the ground as well, allied officials said.

Rebel forces, battered and routed by loyalist fighters just the day before, began to regroup in the east as allied warplanes destroyed dozens of government armored vehicles near the rebel capital, Benghazi, leaving a field of burned wreckage along the coastal road to the city. By nightfall, the rebels had pressed almost 40 miles back west toward the strategic crossroads city of Ajdabiya, witnesses and rebel forces said. And they seemed to consolidate control of Benghazi despite heavy fighting there against loyalist forces on Saturday.

There was evidence, too, that the allies were striking more targets in and around Tripoli, the capital.

It's hard to see how Qaddafi is going to survive this.

Commentators have started comparing the Libyan War to other conflicts. However, the best analogy might be to the 2001 campaign against the Taleban - when a similarly rag-tag army already on the ground (the Northern Alliance) defeated the ruling regime with the support of Western air power. Hopefully, Libya's next decade won't resemble Afghanistan's last.