Losing in Libya 62


Gaddafi now controls 20% more territory than he did before we started this odious bombing campaign. He has been able to hold more and better attended rallies of more genuine supporters in recent days than he ever could before we started bombing. Exactly as I predicted, the effect of NATO bombing has been to rally nationalist support around Gaddafi, whom we have stupidly put in a much stronger position than he was when he only faced genuine internal rebellion.

The French and British have now backed down, and both have agreed that Gaddafi will be able to remain in Libya as part of any transition deal. That amounts to an acceptance that he will be the power behind the throne. The problem is, of course, that it is Gaddafi who is growing stronger and NATO which is growing weaker, with political will to keep killing crumbling as surely as NATO economies and currencies.

Hague and Cameron have moved, from abject weakness, to a position of allowing Gaddafi to remain in Libya, which they adamantly rejected three months ago. Then, there was some hope Gaddafi might have accepted it. Now, he has no need to accept a face-saving deal for NATO. He can just sit and watch them dwindle.

It is, moreover, a facesaving proposal that mocks the International Criminal Court, revealing it starkly as a tool to be brought out and used against the enemies of the western alliance, but simply shoved back in its box if they change their minds.

Obama made a shrewd political move to distract from the abject failure of the Afghan occupation to achieve any of its stated goals, by assassinating Osama Bin Laden. Expect now a similar ploy in Libya, with attempts to assassinate Gadaffi by bombing – and possibly by other means – being radically stepped up in an attempt to rescue some “victory” from this humiliation.


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62 thoughts on “Losing in Libya

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  • mary

    SNAFU.
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    ‘Libya said three journalists were killed in a NATO air strike on state television on Saturday and that the murder of the rebels’ army chief proved Al-Qaeda was instigating the country’s armed revolt.
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    “Three of our colleagues were murdered and 15 injured while performing their professional duty as Libyan journalists,” said Khaled Basilia, director of Al-Jamahiriya television’s English-language service.
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    He branded the air strike “an act of international terrorism and in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”
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    Earlier, NATO in Brussels announced it had carried out precision strikes on three Libyan television transmitters to silence “terror broadcasts” by Moamer Kadhafi’s regime.
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    “NATO conducted a precision air strike that disabled three ground-based Libyan state TV satellite transmission dishes in Tripoli… with the intent of degrading Kadhafi?s use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them,” the alliance said.
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    “In light of our (UN) mandate to protect civilian lives, we had to act. After due consideration and careful planning to minimize the risks of casualties or long-term damage to television transmission capabilities, NATO performed the strike,” he said.
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    But Basilia said the channel posed no threat to civilians. “We are not a military target, we are not commanders in the army and we do not pose threat to civilians,” he insisted.
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    “We are performing our job as journalists representing what we wholeheartedly believe is the reality of NATO’s aggression and the violence in Libya,” Basilia said’.
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    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iTtWKvR-DdIQxxokc985ng_61Ezg?docId=CNG.22b1051d0cf8f4129baecceecc4cef7a.61

  • anon

    Gaddaffi was born in a tent and uses it for social meetings, he lives in a regular modest home not a fancy palace and not in a tent. The west media makes him look bad so it will be easier to accept overthrowing or killing a bad person than a good person. Also a lot of it is jealous since all US and EUrope leaders have ruined their governments and living standards for the last 40 years while Gaddaffi was raising his. It shows Obamas and Clintons form of meanness to punish someone doing well instead of fixing the US and Europe.
    Gaddaffi and any leader has the right to arrest,jail,punish, criminals,terrorists, militants trying to overthrow govt. I am very critical of people claiming oh it is so bad and scary but they lived there over 2 years and over 30 years then just shut up. Same goes for these disgruntled former govt,military,police who were employed 30-40 years suddenly after deciding to defect demand another country overthrow Gaddaffi and some of these defectors like Moussa Koussa are bribed with money, get their punishment eliminated or are threatened with the Hague if they don’t defect. Sure no leader is all perfect and people have real grievances but everyone needs to solve conflicts peacefully not just decide to murder someone they dislike or disagree with. Gaddaffi and Certain Govt personnel did improve life in Libya from where it was before he took over and compae that to 40 years of decline in the US and Europe. If it is so bad move and over 1 million people a year leaving will signal to the government and world there is a real problem. Iran has 500,000 leave a year and there are more Syrians living inside the USA than in Syria. Lybia does not have mass exodus of population so it can’t be that bad.

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