While Washington has been consumed by the battle of the budget, the people running the real war in Libya seem to have given up hope of using American and NATO firepower to drive Moammar Gadhafi from power.

"There is no military solution to this conflict," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said this week. "We need a political solution, and it's up to the Libyan people to come up with one."

"There will not be a military solution to the problem," said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.

"We will not see a military solution in Libya," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

All agree, as does President Obama, that there is no good future for Libya without Gadhafi's departure. Yet it appears Gadhafi's chances of hanging on to power have improved markedly since NATO took over military operations from the U.S.-led Operation Odyssey Dawn. Under NATO's Operation Unified Protector, Gadhafi has turned a situation in which the end of his rule seemed imminent into one in which he might well remain in control of at least part of Libya....