Libya, of course, is not the “Bay of Pigs” where in April 1961 CIA-trained Cuban
exiles, backed by the U.S. Air Force, landed on the island in the hope that they
would overthrow the Castro government.  The European allies are getting
bogged down in Libya much more slowly and therefore more deeply. All they
can do is clench their teeth and try to push on through until victory can be
proclaimed, if not actually achieved.

The Libyan rebels’ somewhat dubious success in Tripoli threatens to draw
NATO into a ground operation while Washington is wondering whether the
European coalition was right to rush into battle.

Who is fighting on the side of the rebels in Libya?

The saga of Tripoli’s fall and the toppling of the Gaddafi regime in Libya
continues. The European allies seem to be launching a new phase of their
Libyan operation, one that is marked by even greater military involvement. So
far, only one thing is certain: increased activity in terms of technical intelligence
gathering and on the part of the Special Forces.

“I can confirm that NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets to
the NTC (National Transitional Council) to help them track down Colonel
Gaddafi and other remnants of the regime,” Britain’s Defense Minister Liam Fox
said Thursday in an interview with Sky News.

But all the signs are that this involvement is not limited to sharing intelligence
with the rebels. Citing UK defense sources, The Daily Telegraph reported “the
SAS has been in Libya for several weeks.” If the newspaper’s sources are to be
believed, British Special Forces “played a key role in coordinating the fall of
Tripoli” and that they were even to be found mingling in rebel ranks “dressed in
Arab civilian clothing and carrying the same weapons as the rebels.”