Do you remember when US President Barack Obama said US involvement in Libya will last for “days, not weeks”? Well as everyone con tell that isn’t what happened. In fact it has now been four months since the no longer needed Soviet defence force NATO has been pounding the country with bombs.

The regime change scheme by the US and NATO forces have gone into a devastating stalemate. So far the so-called rebel forces have not been able to fully take the oil-rich area. These attacks by NATO and the US have not been able to destabilize the government or knock Gaddafi out of power.

Parts of the US and European media are concerned that this invasion will turn into a long drawn out war as it has with Afghanistan and Iraq. (Interestingly we don’t hear about Iraq in the media anymore.) It seems a very likely scenario given the ineffective and civilian oppressing tactics deployed by invasion forces thus far. These media outlets are anticipating that Col. Gaddafi might just pull all forces into Tripoli making a last stand that could last a long time. The misery of the Libyan people would only be exacerbated by such a scenario.

Britain’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said, “I’m afraid I think the chances of the opposition forces entering Tripoli is unlikely in the near future.”

Recently the Russian government asked South African President Jacob Zuma to become involved in the situation as they are an important player in Africa. Zuma has made a proposal, NATO end all attacks and enter into negotiations with the Gaddafi government. In addition there would be a possible multinational peace keeping force under United Nations control.

Clearly such a proposal is expected to be rejected, this plan does not carry out the definite ouster of Gaddafi. The oil resources would not be guaranteed to fall into the hands of Western powers. Mostly likely the offer will be sabotaged by the West and then it will be claimed that Gaddafi won’t negotiate, and use that to escalate violence against the nation.

It seems for the time being that this conflict will draw out into a much nastier situation causing the deaths of many more civilians, who no doubt will suffer the brunt of the violence. The solution is the immediate withdraw of all foreign forces from the country and the immediate cessation of all bombings, and allow the people of Libya to decide how they want to proceed.