Success against Gaddafi must lead to even greater co-operation among our allies, says Gen Sir David Richards.
A Eurofighter Typhoon. Britain's Armed Forces played a vital role in Libya Photo: PA
By Gen Sir David Richards
6:54AM BST 24 Oct 2011
69 Comments
The death of Muammar Gaddafi and yesterday’s formal declaration of Libya’s liberation brings to a close one of the most successful operations Nato has conducted in its 62-year history. The Libyan people had just cause in rising up against a dictator who had murdered his citizens and would have done so again given the chance. Our action, too, was just: defending the people against his brutal regime.
While their courage was never in doubt, the people needed help. They appealed to the international community; and the resolve and determination of the Arab League, the United Nations and the Nato alliance and its coalition members in responding to their calls does all three organisations much credit. Neighbouring states and the wider world rightly responded to a dictator whose actions have destabilised the region. He not only threatened his own people but spread his terror around the globe.
Nor should we forget that Gaddafi was a latent threat to the UK and our citizens. He was responsible for arming the IRA, murdering WPc Yvonne Fletcher and hundreds of others in terrorist attacks – most infamously, at Lockerbie – and developing chemical weapons. Throughout the four decades of his dictatorship, he brought misery to thousands of homes and families. I will not mourn his death.
Our Armed Forces were able to play a key role in a great team effort orchestrated by the National Security Council and with essential work by the Foreign Office and Department for International Development (DfID). I am proud of our actions in combat but also of the military support to the diplomatic effort which the UK, alongside our allies in France, deployed to bring together a coalition in response to the calls of the international community.
In Libya, the RAF’s Tornados again demonstrated their worth while Typhoons flew their first combat missions. The Navy’s ships were more active than at any time since the Falklands conflict. And the Army launched Apache operations from the sea for the first time. This was a truly joint operation by the Armed Forces at the peak of their form. We should not underestimate the risks that our pilots and ships took to reduce risk of collateral damage.
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They did so to achieve a level of accuracy that contrasted with the indiscriminate violence of the Gaddafi regime. We will build on this for the future. Moreover, the results speak for themselves. A dictator gone, a people freed and the popular expression of freedom across the Middle East supported worldwide.
While it is too early to reach conclusions, it is worth considering what initial lessons we can draw from the Libyan campaign. As a military commander, I have always understood the need for partners and allies, and Libya demonstrated that Nato’s role is more valuable than ever. Our pilots flew from Nato bases in Italy, were refuelled by Nato tankers and guided on to targets by analysts in Nato headquarters. The structures set up to defend ourselves against Soviet aggression provided the building blocks for a coalition that protected the Libyan people.
But Nato did not stand alone. While its air and maritime power was vital, military campaigns ultimately are decided on land. In an era when we are less likely to commit ground forces to combat unless our vital national interests are threatened, finding another means of achieving the same effect is vital. In Libya, the army was essentially made up of the National Transitional Council’s militias. Our Arab partners Qatar, UAE and Jordan played a key role in facilitating their success, both militarily and morally. Understanding and exploiting similar situations in the future will be a priority.
Responding together doesn’t come easily. To act effectively, armed forces need to know each other and have a common understanding of the situation they face. Trying to build this under pressure leads to confusion. It takes years and the work of diplomats and defence attachés to ensure we can call on allies when we need them.
We need to work harder on joint practices. Nato’s framework forms a vital core in terms of common training and understanding, but we must do more. The air forces and navies of the Middle East, Europe and North America did very well in Libya, but we can do better. The more we embed training teams, exchange officers and prepare for joint operations, the more we will build the trust that comes only from years of mutual co-operation. Alliances require investment and Libya offers a case in point.
The military part of the operation is now over. Our assistance will change to a more enduring relationship led by the Foreign Office and DfID, with the military assisting in reforming and rebuilding Libya’s security forces. The campaign sends a message to all dictators: the world supports people who are prepared to stand up against an oppressive regime. And while military action may not always be the right reaction, our resolve to assist is clear. To that end, Britain’s Armed Forces will always be a force for good.
• Gen Richards is the Chief of the Defence Staff
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Showing 1-25 of 75 comments
IgonikonJack
1 minute ago
NATO used almost the same strategy of overwhelming air power
that forced democratic chsnge in former Yugoslavia to stop war
of genocide, but, without regime change, which was the case in
Libya: How to assist a rag-tag rebel army to effectively and
successfully confront and defeat one of the best-equipped regular
armies in Africa, if not the world, was a monumental challenge.
Pto-Gaddafi force had tanks and heavy artillery, which they used
in places like Misrata and Zhawiya with bloody, devastsing effects
againt the poorly armed anti-Gaddafi rebels who liberated towns
and subsequently lost them during deadlycounter-attacks and
heavy bombardments from pro-Gaddafi forces.
Many pundits were sceptical of NATO's air strikes and excluisive
arial interventionism, amidst early division and lukewarm support
from some member-nations. But, as it turned out, NATOs arial
support was the key for the successful liberation of Libya and the
subsequent regime change and the end of Gaddafism.
All NATO wanted was good intelligence, where the tanks and heavy artillery were hidden, and they would be blasted and destroyed from the air. Finally, Gaddafi's once mobile, combat-tested tank divisions were paralyzed. If they moved. They be blasted from the air--a favorite of like-flying Apache hrlicopters--known as tank killers. If the tanks were stored, they became sitting
targets to be blown away.
This is the combat strategy that paved way for the David versus strruggle between Libysn rebels and the pro-Gaddafii armed
forces. The Royal Royal Ait Force played key roles in all these
operations supported by the NATO command, as Sir General
David Richards aptly described it.
They were doubts initially by pacifist critics. But, I remained cautiously optimistict that Libyan liberation rebels will prevail.
When I temporarily left The Telegraph, Libyan rebels were about
60 miles from Tripoli. When I cane back after 2 months, factoring in the one month restful Ramadan, anti-Gaddafi rebels stormed the capital from three fronts. What an amazing accomplishment.
It shows what can be achieved through multinational cooperation, which is the surest means of preventing genocide snd getting rid of dictators.
Igonikon Javk, USA Recommended by 0 person
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macadder
4 minutes ago
How many did we murder!
alfredo
7 minutes ago
Somebody please give this man his medication. He is raving.
Libya was a genocidal crime. Pure and simple.
eilati
10 minutes ago
Sounds like Mussolini's generals bragging about conquering Ethiopia. 40,000 Libyans are estimated to have been killed in this fiasco, not for ''democracy'' but for oil. And the result will be a Shari'a state which is perhaps more tyrannical than Qadaffi, unless of course, the country disintigrates into warring factions & becomes another Somalia.
beefbeefbeef
18 minutes ago
It's a shame that our top generals and, i suspect, leading figures in the police etc, are effectively politicians rather than proper soldiers / police etc.
I guess they would never get to the top otherwise but, judging by Gen Richards' article, truth seems to be the first casualty
oxforddon
19 minutes ago
Libya ain't over yet, not by a long way. It could become another failed state. We know nothing about the insurgents we supported, and we may have set the preconditions for years of untold misery.
Surely it is way too soon to rush out this sort of self-serving naked jingoism?
Or was it penned purely to spare the MOD budget from further cuts?
cdvision
19 minutes ago
War criminals one and all. I never thought in my life I would say that. Despicable Govt, of course, but obeying illegal orders is Nuremburg stuff.
______ amicus
14 minutes ago
And the Colonel was such a wise and compassionate ruler, a man who never hurt a fly.
____________ bnarpalvr
1 minute ago
Gaddafi had to be tough & cruel otherwise he'd have been dead years ago....
it is time you nambies realised that it takes tough determined men to rule these countries...
Ponces like cameldung would've ended up in a ditch decades ago... Oh that thought just cheered me up.
bnarpalvr
21 minutes ago
I had high hopes of a three of our military men to step firward and stop the nonces like cameldung ruining this country.
Alas all three have joined the COnservtive party
bnarpalvr
24 minutes ago
I think if I was Gaddafi i would have made provisions with a pile of cash for revenge on those leaders should I not survive.
themoneysystemisascam
26 minutes ago
Pompous tosh.
simon_coulter
27 minutes ago
Triumphalism. We were not at war. We were taking part, within NATO, in activity directly circumscribed by UNSCR1973 - and frankly arguably went very considerably beyond that remit - including with covert forces from several states operating on the ground.
I can commend the air crews and their supports - not least because of the distances many of them had to fly because of our inadequate resources - but they were essentially shooting fish in a barrel, meeting little conventional resistance. As to our presumed covert presence - incredibly brave and top class soldiers / intelligence personnel as ever- but was there actually any mandate for them to be there?
Simple Simon says
28 minutes ago
As the pirates did during lizzy's the first reign?
Are you drake?
ninja
34 minutes ago
They did a job they are very well paid to do. No doubt they were well provided for and housed in Italy, the accommodation bill runs into the tens of £millions, they won't have been slumming it, the RAF never do.
No need for this self congratulatory nonsense Recommended by 9 people
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______ julesinkl
17 minutes ago
Indeed they are but there have been some very long flights without toilet breaks. Stories for the grandchildren, how Grandad fought the evil dictator in a wet cockpit.
Come on DT, this whole piece is drivel.
David Trant
38 minutes ago
The only, 'pride' should be in the amazing technical skill of those who have developed airpower to the point where risk is reduced dramatically when used against an inferior opponent.
If there is no risk then the, 'pride' you feel in the achievement is much reduced, even non-existant.
My father fought in Libya, but he fought against the Germans, you can feel great pride in what the 8th army did against a highly organised and committed foe, not quite the same when it comes to Gaddafi's mob.
p.s.
Perhaps the Syrians should come next, (although the Israelis manage to defeat them without to much bother) they at least have an airdefence system and an airforce.
riverlud
39 minutes ago
Let’s wait and see what the situation is in Libya in year’s time before we congratulate ourselves, eh Sir Richards?
______ johntheanonymous1
34 minutes ago
This message could perhaps be better directed to Andrew Gilligan, who on another story is announcing:
"Libya's liberation: finally an end to four decades of pain and grief..."
Except it can't be. Because there aren't any comments allowed on that one.
johntheanonymous1
39 minutes ago
"The campaign sends a message to all dictators: the world supports people who are prepared to stand up against an oppressive regime..."
Funnily enough, I seem to recall that only a few short months ago our military, at the behest of the venal trash that govern the country, were assiduously arming and training the torturers and bullies of this "dictator" and his "oppressive regime".
There was probably a time in the not so distant past when a Chief of the Defence Staff would have considered it beneath him to peddle this shameful and revolting drivel.
Oh, and "it is worth considering what initial lessons we can draw from the Libyan campaign..."
The lesson I've drawn is that if you're the leader of a small country that owns some oil, you had better not do anything to upset a cabal of powerful vested interests in the West, otherwise you'll end up getting dragged through the streets and kicked to death.
I trust Alex Salmond and the SNP have taken due note.
julesinkl
19 minutes ago
First the Libyans, then the Scots....
MrBishi
43 minutes ago
An optimistic article about our armed forces.
Has Con had a Damascene conversion?
Oh - it's not written by a DT journalist.
sean mark
50 minutes ago
The abuse of a UN mandate to protect civilians by NATO has left me even more ashamed of my country and armed forces.
Civilians have been slaughtered by the rebels, aided by NATO. They have made a mockery of the UN and in the process lost any moral legitimacy. We have helped install Islamic fundamentalism, the greatest evil since Nazism. These articles disgust me to the core of my being. England has lost herself, her values, the true meaning of standing up for what is right. Our forefathers in WWI and II and Falklands and some other engagements, fought with honour for an honourable cause. But politicians of the modern era abuse their power, and pervert our armed forces who carry out their duty at the command of evil men
pietrosl
55 minutes ago
As they said in WW1, lions led by donkeys. Our soldiers did us proud - they generally do, our Military leaders did not, bleating throughout about military cuts and our politicians..........well, the usual applies.
bnarpalvr
Today 09:31 AM
Our troops 99+% of the time always do us proud..
However.... our Commanders in chiefs are a disgrace.
the murder of Libyan troops retreating is not the British way.
""Pro-Gaddafi forces had taken to the sea by boat after fighting a desperate rearguard battle for the refinery, the regime’s last source of fuel for its besieged capital.
The RAF delivered """the final blow""" just as two senior officers boarded the ship from an inflatable.""
“Although a challenging target, small and under way at sea, a direct hit was scored with a laser-guided Paveway bomb which sank the vessel,” Major Gen Nick Pope said.
And the shite pope talks as tho it was a video game.
The first day in 50 years I am ashamed to be British.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...
i do not blame the troops I blame the leaders.
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