SURPRISES IN THE LIBYAN CIVIL WAR.

The sudden appearance of Gadhafi's son, Seif al Islam, is one of the surprising events in the Libyan civil war. Others, like not being able to find Gadhafi anywhere, or to track him down and arrest him, are even more so.

At first, we were made to understand that Seif has been captured alongside two other brothers, and that they were firmly in the custody of the rebels. Then, from nowhere, he was found to be riding high on the shoulders of government soldiers and on a tank near Rixos Hotel.

What happened? Was he caught or not? Who had him and where were the prisoners kept? Were the rebels so incompetent in handling normal things that occurred in a civil war? Should not Seif and his brothers have been isolated and taken from Tripoli to Benghazi the moment they were arrested, if they were really arrested? Should not security be the top priority in the minds of the members of the Transitional National Council?

Those were some of the questions that were going through everybody's mind. They seemed simple for even a twelve year old to surmise and come up with the right answers; yet, the fact that the rebels had botched such a delicate operation, as holding important prisoners, and not being able to secure them, cast so much doubt about their plans to win the war.

They knew that Tripoli was "Gadhafi territory", and that he had much support there than anywhere else; yet, they started celebrating, when they entered the city, instead of mobilizing their forces, which was in ragtag shape, into two or three tight units.

They would then engage the Libyan military forces in the vicinity of the compound, where they would find Gadhafi, or at least got to know his whereabouts. The compound was completely fortified, but that should not have deterred the rebels; it should have been their main target.

The type of bits and pieces formation of fighters here and there was not going to be effective in a city as big and as cosmopolitan as Tripoli; and relying on separated groups, fighting away from each other would not work in a metropolis, as the city was.

Seif's incident called the NATO and other intelligence operations working in Libya into question. Why should not they have managed to locate where Gadhafi exactly was; or should not they have some idea that it might take more than a single day to exert dominance over Tripoli?

They had all the relevant information they needed to even capture Gadhafi and all the members of his government, and somehow, due to lack of communications with the rebels, their strategies were not put into full force. They were to take a few more days, after their entry into Tripoli on Sunday, August 21st, 2011, to claim everything that was to be claimed, to make their attack to be as successful as expected.

Now, as President Barack Obama said in his speech yesterday, the war would be long lasting, and therefore, Americans should brace themselves for any amount of bad news, until such time that victory would be won by the rebels over Gadhafi.

He, Gadhafi, was a threat to United States interests; a criminal, who harbored terrorists. He must be caught and tried in a court of law, as the ICC (International Criminal Court) had planned, and then be sentenced for his crimes against all humanity. He must never be allowed to get away.