LIBYA: WHY THE CONFLICT IS A BIG DEAL FOR DAVID CAMERON

Being the first military campaign launched by the PM, Libya is close to his heart. No wonder he cut short a summer holiday for the second time in a fortnight.



David Cameron cut short his holiday in Cornwall

following news that Libyan rebels were retaking Tripoli.

Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

David Cameron cut short his holiday in Cornwall following news that Libyan rebels were retaking Tripoli. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

 

David Cameron, who has cut short a summer holiday for the second time in less than a fortnight, may be ruing the lack of the customary August silly season. But while it took him three-and-a-half (maybe four) days to get back from Tuscany when the riots began, this time he seemed a lot keener to return to London and get stuck into some good news.

He was on his way back from Cornwall within hours of rebel forces entering Tripoli – but then Cornwall is nearer than Italy.

Perhaps, just as Cameron has refashioned working in Downing Street while bringing up young children (he nips between home and work more often than previous PMs) he's doing the same to the holiday – a bit of work and a bit of play – that is how he thinks it is acceptable to have quite a few of them in the first place.

This time, he may have hurried back because Libya, which is the first military conflict launched by Cameron, is close to his heart.

Remember he went out on a limb to call for a no-fly zone over Libya – along with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy – which at the time the Labour party thought would leave the PM internationally isolated.

Cameron and Sarkozy next assembled the kind of robust international coalition needed to secure the critical UN resolution to act in Libya – he may well have surprised himself at his success (and may never have expected to secure the resolution, or thought he'd end up deploying troops.

Thirdly, remember Barack Obama was sniffy about it and kept out of the alliance until really quite late.

Unlike the first of Tony Blair's wars – the Nato bombing of Kosovo in 1999 – it wasn't a conflict begun by Blair and was also shorter than the intervention in Libya – two months as opposed to the six months that allies have been in Libya. At some point over the past six month months Cameron has contemplated Libyan rebels not winning through.

One of his cabinet ministers, the foreign secretary, William Hague, has said the Arab spring is more critical to the world than 9/11. Because it reflects advances made in technology and civil society, it fits with Cameron's philosophical outlook. In terms of their analysis, but also in terms of resources committed, the prospect of Libyan rebels taking control of Tripoli is a big deal.

He also had to be at the National Security Council this morning because there were details to keep a handle on – events in Iraq took a turn for the worse as it emerged there was no postwar reconstruction plan. Winning the peace is just as much a policy challenge for Cameron as having contributed to winning the war in Libya.

So of course the prime minister zoomed up to London at the idea Tripoli might be falling … and the development also clearly surprised him – you'd have thought he would be getting grade-A intelligence on when and where the end would come for Muammar Gaddafi.

And that the smart thing to do would be to delay this latest holiday (his fifth this year, according to some) by a couple of days rather than go only to come back on the first day.

In his statement on Monday morning he listed the many cabinet ministers who will now be back in London monitoring the situation. So the boss can go back on his break.

By: Allegra Stratton - The Guardian