The Libyan rebels were well on their way to marching on Tripoli, until Obama’s dithering at the United Nations gave Gaddafi time to drive them back to the gates of Benghazi. ~Marc Thiessen

Anyone paying the slightest attention to the military capabilities of the rebels over the last few weeks knows that this is nonsense. Despite over a week of bombing and strikes on Gaddafi’s ground forces, the rebels have been unable to hold any territory once they face a counter-attack, and they are already losing the ground they “took” in the last few days. Each time the rebels have encountered stiff resistance, they have faltered, and as soon as Gaddafi’s forces go back on the offensive they flee in pell-mell retreat. This is understandable, as they are for the most part not trained soldiers, and their adversaries are significantly better-armed and trained. The idea that they were “well on their way to marching on Tripoli” is a bad joke, and if there’s anything more outrageous than the misguided policy Obama has chosen it is the lie that an earlier intervention would have secured rebel victory. As we are seeing, the Libyan rebels are not capable of obtaining victory without U.S. and allied forces eliminating most of Gaddafi’s forces for them.