AMX Warplanes: Gaddafi's Worst Nightmare

Long War: In the last two days the Libyan rebels have killed 300 of Gaddafi's soldiers and suffered only light casualties.

President Obama called Italian PM Berlusconi and talked the PM into unleashing the Italian Air Force in Italy. The Italian Air Force had been under orders not to hit ground targets, but now it is going after Gaddafi hammer and tongs. Forget all the jokes about the Italian military from WW II, that is yesterday's news. The Italian Air Force of today has 130 AMX dedicated ground attack fighters. After the A-10 warthog, the AMX is the world's best ground attack fighter jet. Many Italian pilots are trained on both the AMX and the warthog and see very little difference between the two. Italy also has scores of Harrier jump jets, which is probably the third best ground attack fighter in existence.

Gaddafi's army has mostly pulled back from direct fighting in the key battles of Misurata, Brega, and the western hill towns of the anti-Gaddafi Berber tribes. Gaddafi is doing this to pound civilians from a distance, a pure terror tactic. This means his army is vulnerable to ground attack aircraft like the AMX as well as Predator drones. On Tuesday, NATO air strikes hit 3 ammo dumps around Misurata, an undisclosed number of tanks, armored vehicles and trucks, plus a training base was vaporised - which means a large number of Gaddafi's soldiers were killed.

Momentum badly needs to be established in the Libya War because other Long War hot spots continue to deteriorate. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is ramping up its infiltration of Afghan security forces, staging huge prison breaks and placing suicide bombers inside good guy military facilities. The Afghan Army and police have no system for keeping uniforms, badges, and equipment out of bad guy hands. This makes it easy for the Taliban to impersonate good guys and carry out infiltration operations. A western army would have rigorous systems in place to prevent this from happening. America has not set up these systems within the ranks of our Afghan allies because it is too busy rushing to wind up operations and leave Afghanistan by Obama's July deadline. The more America rushes recklessly to leave, the longer it will have to stay.

Racking up victories in Libya will help improve the attitudes of American voters. If the general public feels better, then the Pentagon can talk Obama into slowing down his withdrawal timetable in Afghanistan. Also, forward progress in Libya will take the wind out of the bad guys' sails in all the other LW hot spots and stiffen the spine of wavering allies like the Pak government. Finally, in the long run establishing a pro-American democracy in Libya will prove vital in the decades of fighting against AQIM that are sure to follow a possible total victory by the Free Libyan Army.