Bombs on Libya
The barrage begins
Mar 20th 2011, 11:42 by M.S.
THE FIRST stage of the “multiphase” Operation Odyssey Dawn may already be over. At 19.00 GMT on Saturday evening, American and British naval vessels launched a co-ordinated Tomahawk cruise missile attack on Libyan air-defence systems. At least 110 missiles struck at 20 command and control sites that had been targeted earlier in the week by satellites and aerial-surveillance missions conducted by American and British aircraft. There were also unconfirmed reports of American B-2 “stealth” bombers hitting a major Libyan airfield.
According to allied military sources, the strikes “severely disabled” the Libyan regime’s ability both to “see” coalition aircraft entering Libyan airspace and maintain effective command and control over the country’s integrated air defence systems, which include nearly 100 Mig-25s and 15 Mirage F-1s and a huge arsenal of Russian surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). A bomb-damage assessment is now underway to determine whether more attacks are needed to degrade Muammar Qaddafi’s air defences further before enforcement of the UN-mandated no-fly zone can begin in relative safety. A second phase is likely to begin later on Sunday with coalition aircraft (including 16 British GR4 Tornados, Rafales from the French carrier Charles de Gaulle at Toulon and F-18s from the USS Enterprise in the Red Sea) launching attacks with anti-radiation missiles that lock on to and destroy enemy radar systems.Just over two hours before the main assault began, French Rafale (pictured) and Mirage 2000 fighters went into action over Benghazi. As international leaders met in Paris to agree the outline of the UN-backed military campaign, anxiety had grown over the threat to Libya’s second-biggest city. The ceasefire declared by the Qaddafi regime on Friday had been exposed as a ruse, as loyalist forces sped towards the rebels’ stronghold, beginning a major tank and artillery bombardment early on Saturday, while infiltrating snipers into central areas of the city.
The French mission, which deployed 20 aircraft including aerial refuelling tankers and airborne command and control planes, was an attempt (a little belated according to some military observers) to prevent Colonel Qaddafi establishing a fait accompli in Benghazi before the allies had got their act together. By preventing the regime from using its airpower effectively and suppressing for a time the artillery bombardment, the French brought some relief to the beleaguered city, but by not striking earlier, the allies have made things more difficult both for themselves and the civilian population they are trying to protect. Unless the Qaddafi forces withdraw, hitting them rather than the rebels resisting them will be difficult, while the risks of collateral damage if the fighting spreads within Benghazi will be high.
The pattern seems set for the next two or three days. As more allied forces arrive in the theatre of operations—Danish and Canadian jets have landed at the American airbase at Sigonella in Sicily or are on their way and fighter aircraft from Spain, Qatar and the UAE have been promised—and as the tricky technical job of co-ordinating the participating air forces progresses, the no-fly zone will become increasingly effective. A naval blockade will also come into force. Ground attacks on the Libyan regime’s armour, artillery, rocket launchers and mechanised infantry in both the east and west of the country seem certain to intensify if Colonel Qaddafi insists on carrying on the fight. A major uncertainty is whether his forces will continue to obey his orders if they start to believe the game is up. The 20,000 well-trained tribal paramilitary forces that the Colonel most relies on may feel they have no alternative. But the mercenaries he employs may think differently: they are paid to fight, but not to the death. Although the Americans appear to be reluctantly leading the operation at the moment through Admiral Samuel Locklear, the commander of the Allied Joint Force based in Naples, there is talk of mission leadership being handed over to either Britain or France once the first phases are over. Some tricky issues are coming up fast.The UN resolution appears to exclude the use of foreign ground forces in Libya, but if strikes on the regime's ground forces are to be fully effective (and less likely to hit the wrong targets), air forces will need specialised ground spotters to guide them. Relying on intelligence from the rebels will not give allied pilots the kind of real-time situational awareness that they will want. Secondly, the coalition does not yet have a declared policy on what it will do to support rebel counter-attacks. Regime change is a hope, rather than an aim of the operation. But at some stage, the distinction is likely to become blurred between protecting civilians from Colonel Qaddafi and effectively fighting for (and perhaps arming) one side in a Libyan civil war.
THE FIRST stage of the “multiphase” Operation Odyssey Dawn may already be over. At 19.00 GMT on Saturday evening, American and British naval vessels launched a co-ordinated Tomahawk cruise missile attack on Libyan air-defence systems. At least 110 missiles struck at 20 command and control sites that had been targeted earlier in the week by satellites and aerial-surveillance missions conducted by American and British aircraft. There were also unconfirmed reports of American B-2 “stealth” bombers hitting a major Libyan airfield.
According to allied military sources, the strikes “severely disabled” the Libyan regime’s ability both to “see” coalition aircraft entering Libyan airspace and maintain effective command and control over the country’s integrated air defence systems, which include nearly 100 Mig-25s and 15 Mirage F-1s and a huge arsenal of Russian surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). A bomb-damage assessment is now underway to determine whether more attacks are needed to degrade Muammar Qaddafi’s air defences further before enforcement of the UN-mandated no-fly zone can begin in relative safety. A second phase is likely to begin later on Sunday with coalition aircraft (including 16 British GR4 Tornados, Rafales from the French carrier Charles de Gaulle at Toulon and F-18s from the USS Enterprise in the Red Sea) launching attacks with anti-radiation missiles that lock on to and destroy enemy radar systems.
Just over two hours before the main assault began, French Rafale (pictured) and Mirage 2000 fighters went into action over Benghazi. As international leaders met in Paris to agree the outline of the UN-backed military campaign, anxiety had grown over the threat to Libya’s second-biggest city. The ceasefire declared by the Qaddafi regime on Friday had been exposed as a ruse, as loyalist forces sped towards the rebels’ stronghold, beginning a major tank and artillery bombardment early on Saturday, while infiltrating snipers into central areas of the city.
The French mission, which deployed 20 aircraft including aerial refuelling tankers and airborne command and control planes, was an attempt (a little belated according to some military observers) to prevent Colonel Qaddafi establishing a fait accompli in Benghazi before the allies had got their act together. By preventing the regime from using its airpower effectively and suppressing for a time the artillery bombardment, the French brought some relief to the beleaguered city, but by not striking earlier, the allies have made things more difficult both for themselves and the civilian population they are trying to protect. Unless the Qaddafi forces withdraw, hitting them rather than the rebels resisting them will be difficult, while the risks of collateral damage if the fighting spreads within Benghazi will be high.
The pattern seems set for the next two or three days. As more allied forces arrive in the theatre of operations—Danish and Canadian jets have landed at the American airbase at Sigonella in Sicily or are on their way and fighter aircraft from Spain, Qatar and the UAE have been promised—and as the tricky technical job of co-ordinating the participating air forces progresses, the no-fly zone will become increasingly effective. A naval blockade will also come into force. Ground attacks on the Libyan regime’s armour, artillery, rocket launchers and mechanised infantry in both the east and west of the country seem certain to intensify if Colonel Qaddafi insists on carrying on the fight. A major uncertainty is whether his forces will continue to obey his orders if they start to believe the game is up. The 20,000 well-trained tribal paramilitary forces that the Colonel most relies on may feel they have no alternative. But the mercenaries he employs may think differently: they are paid to fight, but not to the death.
The French mission, which deployed 20 aircraft including aerial refuelling tankers and airborne command and control planes, was an attempt (a little belated according to some military observers) to prevent Colonel Qaddafi establishing a fait accompli in Benghazi before the allies had got their act together. By preventing the regime from using its airpower effectively and suppressing for a time the artillery bombardment, the French brought some relief to the beleaguered city, but by not striking earlier, the allies have made things more difficult both for themselves and the civilian population they are trying to protect. Unless the Qaddafi forces withdraw, hitting them rather than the rebels resisting them will be difficult, while the risks of collateral damage if the fighting spreads within Benghazi will be high.
The pattern seems set for the next two or three days. As more allied forces arrive in the theatre of operations—Danish and Canadian jets have landed at the American airbase at Sigonella in Sicily or are on their way and fighter aircraft from Spain, Qatar and the UAE have been promised—and as the tricky technical job of co-ordinating the participating air forces progresses, the no-fly zone will become increasingly effective. A naval blockade will also come into force. Ground attacks on the Libyan regime’s armour, artillery, rocket launchers and mechanised infantry in both the east and west of the country seem certain to intensify if Colonel Qaddafi insists on carrying on the fight. A major uncertainty is whether his forces will continue to obey his orders if they start to believe the game is up. The 20,000 well-trained tribal paramilitary forces that the Colonel most relies on may feel they have no alternative. But the mercenaries he employs may think differently: they are paid to fight, but not to the death.
Although the Americans appear to be reluctantly leading the operation at the moment through Admiral Samuel Locklear, the commander of the Allied Joint Force based in Naples, there is talk of mission leadership being handed over to either Britain or France once the first phases are over. Some tricky issues are coming up fast.
The UN resolution appears to exclude the use of foreign ground forces in Libya, but if strikes on the regime's ground forces are to be fully effective (and less likely to hit the wrong targets), air forces will need specialised ground spotters to guide them. Relying on intelligence from the rebels will not give allied pilots the kind of real-time situational awareness that they will want. Secondly, the coalition does not yet have a declared policy on what it will do to support rebel counter-attacks. Regime change is a hope, rather than an aim of the operation. But at some stage, the distinction is likely to become blurred between protecting civilians from Colonel Qaddafi and effectively fighting for (and perhaps arming) one side in a Libyan civil war.
The budget
The sixth fudge
Yet another short-term fix looks likely
Mar 17th 2011 | WASHINGTON, DC | from the print edition
“THIS is a lousy way to run a railroad,” complained Steny Hoyer, a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives. But at least the trains are still running. On March 15th the House approved a stopgap measure to keep the federal government running until early April. As The Economistwent to press, the Senate looked set to do the same. For three more weeks, it seems, a shutdown of all but the most essential bits of the government has been averted. But a derailment still looms thereafter.
For almost six months now, the government has been subsisting on a series of short-term “continuing resolutions” in lieu of an annual budget. That has allowed congressional leaders to skirt divisions about how much the government should be spending. But the divisions remain.
The latest continuing resolution follows the same formula as the previous one, passed two weeks ago. It cuts annual spending by $2 billion for every week of the government’s reprieve, for a total of $6 billion in this case. That allows Republicans, who want to take an axe to the budget, to claim they are chopping away. But all the items cut so far are things the Democrats had already agreed to do without, either through Barack Obama’s proposed budget for next year or through a ban on earmarks, meaning individual congressmen’s pet projects.
Support for a compromise, or at least for the fudge embodied by the continuing resolutions, is dwindling. Whereas only six Republican representatives voted against the previous continuing resolution, 54 of them rejected the latest one. That meant that the Republican leadership in the House needed 29 Democratic votes to secure its passage. Yet Democratic support also fell, from 104 votes in favour last time to only 85 this time.The drawback of this approach is that the two sides are running out of cuts they can agree on. Republicans are eager to scrap all spending on cherished Democratic causes, such as Mr Obama’s health reforms and public broadcasting. That, naturally, is anathema to many Democrats, who anyway feel that the cutting has already gone far enough. Besides the $10 billion trimmed from the two most recent continuing resolutions, they point out, spending was already running at around $40 billion below the level Mr Obama had proposed for the year in his never-enacted budget. Given that the Republicans had set a target of cutting $100 billion, says Jay Carney, Mr Obama’s spokesman, the Democrats have already met them halfway. Many Republicans, however, think $100 billion too timid and their leadership’s reluctance to use the threat of a shutdown to extract bigger concessions from the Democrats too craven.
The Senate, meanwhile, seems hopelessly divided. Neither the Democrats’ modest cuts, nor the Republicans’ savage ones, won the support of a majority in recent votes, let alone the 60% threshold of support needed to pass most legislation. In short, the two parties remain on a collision course, with the train wreck currently scheduled for April 8th. By then, the government will be about to bump up against the federal debt ceiling, any increase in which requires congressional approval.
Asia's talent market
Locals first
Employment in Asian firms is booming—but for locals, not Western expats
Mar 3rd 2011 | SINGAPORE | ECONOMIST
BACK in the days when cushy jobs for foreigners were plentiful in Asia, Western expats used to get called FILTH—“failed in London, trying Hong Kong”. Now, though, they may end up as FISHTAILS—“failed in Shanghai, trying again in London”. This is because employers in Asia, despite strong demand for managers and professionals, increasingly choose to hire locals, not outsiders.
Overall, the jobs outlook is brighter the farther east you go: the latest survey by Manpower, an employment consultancy, found that companies in India, China and Taiwan expect to hire more than firms in other countries during the first half of 2011. Western companies in all sorts of industries are continuing to push into Asia’s high-growth economies. This week, for example, Tesco, Britain’s largest retailer, announced a big expansion in China.
However, Joe Expat may not get much of a look-in. Graduates are flooding on to Asia’s job market from local universities, and Asians with degrees from Western ones are returning home. Since 2003 roughly 325,000 Chinese have returned after studying overseas—more than three times as many as in the entire two decades before—according to David Zweig of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who is writing a book on the subject. The number of Chinese studying abroad and expected to return home afterwards continues to rise. Even Westerners with top-class MBAs are finding it tough. Andrew Stephen of the Singapore campus of INSEAD, a prestigious French business school, says he has seen good candidates being passed over by multinationals because they were not Asian.
Since there is no longer so much need for foreign workers, Asian governments are tightening their visa rules. In 2008 Singapore granted 156,900 work visas to foreigners and less than half that number of jobs went to residents. Now the numbers are roughly equal. “There isn’t an overwhelming need to import young and enthusiastic people any more,” says Declan O’Sullivan, a director of Singapore-based Kerry Consulting.
It is not just a question of supply and demand, though. Big employers in Asia, especially those that have got burned in their past dealings with local governments, are putting a premium on local knowledge, language and connections. Recruiters say candidates with a demonstrable long-term commitment to a country, and ready-made guanxi (business and political relationships), get preference. The locals-first attitude to hiring extends up all the way to the most senior executive levels. Just as experience in Asia is coming to be seen as an essential career step in Western multinationals, the opportunities for recent graduates to gain such experience seem to be shrinking.
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