Libyan war may last for 30 years?

PanARMENIAN.Net - The British Cabinet admitted that it has no idea how long the military operation against Colonel Gaddafi could take, The Daily Mail reported.

Asked for an estimate, Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey said: “How long is a piece of string? We don't know how long this is going to go on. We don't know if this is going to result in a stalemate. We don't know if his capabilities are going to be degraded quickly. Ask me again in a week.”

The comments come as a defiant Muammar Gaddafi made a speech on Libyan state television last night in which he claimed said he was ready for entrenched conflict, saying: “In the short term, we'll beat them, in the long term, we'll beat them.”

And as Tory MPs expressed fears that the war could last for 30 years, Foreign Secretary William Hague added to fears of an expensive and open-ended commitment, saying that it was impossible to put a deadline on British involvement.

Mr Hague said: “It's too early to speculate. It depends what happens one way or another. I don't think you can put a deadline or a time objective to that. 'We need to do those things as long as it is necessary, and that will depend on how people react in Libya, the reaction of the Gaddafi regime, on so many factors.”