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Showing posts with label gaddafi winning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaddafi winning. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Desperate Libyan Rebels Beg Dithering West to Assassinate Muammar Gaddafi
0 comments Posted by queen at 5:00 AM"...we are disappointed with the US
for not exercising leadership"
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| -Malta Times- |
The Libyan opposition -back on their heels as pro-Gaddafi forces consolidate fresh gains in what was rebel-controlled territory in the east- has been reduced to pleading for a targeted strike on Gaddafi's residential compound, ala Ronald Reagan 1986...
Seems they realize that in the unlikely event of Beijing and the Kremlin actually approving a UN NFZ, it's not going to have the desired effect on the outcome now... the rebels need a lot deeper intervention than that, but they're never going to get it:
Libya's revolutionary leadership is pressing western powers to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi and launch military strikes against his forces to protect rebel-held cities from the threat of bloody assault.
Mustafa Gheriani, spokesman for the revolutionary national council in its stronghold of Benghazi, said the appeal was to be made by a delegation meeting the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in Paris on Monday, as G8 foreign ministers gathered there to consider whether to back French and British calls for a no-fly zone over Libya.
"We are telling the west we want a no-fly zone, we want tactical strikes against those tanks and rockets that are being used against us and we want a strike against Gaddafi's compound," said Gheriani. "This is the message from our delegation in Europe."
Asked if that meant that the revolutionary council wanted the west to assassinate Gaddafi, Gheriani replied: "Why not? If he dies, nobody will shed a tear."
Alas, as the regime's tanks, artillery, and fighter jets make quick work of the rebels, the US has come out far less hawkish than the British and French... and they haven't gotten the already-useless NFZ proposal anywhere near a Security Council vote anyway:
On the other hand -although the rebel stronghold of Benghazi lies just 150 mi from the front lines now and appears militarily threatened- Gaddafi's forces would face a difficult type of urban warfare there and likely take significant casualties, something altogether different from their chasing disorganized and outgunned rebels across the desert.
Additionally -with pro-regime supply lines stretched- the Libyan opposition will be defending their own homes and families. Rebel morale is holding up from most accounts, with Radio Behghazi even broadcasting a special Libyan rebel-rap song to the soldiers at the front. They've got an experienced new commander who recently defected from the Libyan Army, too- reportedly he's bringing 8000 men and some heavy weapons with him.
But that doesn't mean they're not scared in Benghazi: all in Libya know the life expectancy of any enemy-of-Gaddafi-now-at-his-mercy can be measured in minutes. And the guy's as twisted a sadist as you could imagine: in 1984 the Brotherly Leader scheduled the "trial" of a peaceful political protester -a respected engineer- in a basketball arena filled with Libyan schoolchildren: instead of a trial, the gallows were unveiled and he was promptly hanged...Gaddafi watched back home on live TV.
Most expect a horrendously bloody fight followed by battlefield massacres/mass executions if Benghazi falls: think Rwanda and you'll have some idea of what to expect from this vengeful, soulless monster: recall that both Gaddafi and son Saif have been promising "rivers of blood" right from the start...
Al Jazeera's correspondent in the capital Tripoli said the (amnesty) offer will play on very anxious rebel forces who don't know how they will be able to put up a fight against Gaddafi's forces, given the overwhelming superiority of his military forces.
"There is an enormous degree of anxiety. It's an all or nothing game now," Anita McNaught said.
"If the rebels do not manage to hold out against Gaddafi and establish some kind of protective zone in the east of the country, it is almost certain in the wake of this there would be some dreadful purge of those who dared to raise their hands against the Gaddafi administration.
"People know that unless they are able to keep Tripoli at bay, that the alternative is almost too awful to contemplate. Those fears apply equally in Tripoli; they are just not expressed as openly as they are in the east."
 |
| -Reuters- |
So how has Obama's inaction -while the rebels he claimed to support are cut to ribbons- gone over in Benghazi?
Rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani says that Obama's empty rhetoric -which created huge false expectations- will be causing the west problems in the future:
...Libyans are also increasingly vocal in their criticism of Washington in particular for what is seen as a failure to back up rhetoric against the regime.
However, Gheriani said that if the west failed to offer practical help to the revolutionaries to free themselves from Gaddafi's rule it risked frustrated Libyans turning to religious extremists.
"The west is missing the point. The revolution was started because people were feeling despair from poverty, from oppression. Their last hope was freedom. If the west takes too long – where people say it's too little, too late – then people become a target for extremists who say the west doesn't care about them," he said.
"Most people in this country are moderates and extremists have not been able to penetrate them. But if they get to the point of disillusionment with the west there will be no going back."
And democracy advocates never had any real choice but fight, according to former Libyan minister Ali Errishi:
We are frustrated, the UN should live up to its moral and legal obligations, and do what is right, we are disappointed with the US for not exercising leadership.
People went out to demonstrate peacefully, they were then faced with bullets and with air bombardment. We had to defend ourselves. This fight has been imposed upon us.
The Libyan people made up their mind, it is either victory or death, the rest of the world should know, that there is no room for negations because the other side left no room for negotiations...
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Wednesday, March 2, 2011
LIBYA: Pro-Gaddafi Forces Go on the Offensive, Retaking Strategic Towns and Oil Facilities near Tripoli... then Turn East
0 comments Posted by queen at 3:55 AM
Forces loyal to embattled Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi scored some strategic gains early today by chasing rebels from at least two towns, apparently in an effort to establish a strategic buffer-zone around the Gaddafi stronghold of Tripoli. They also retook a key coastal oil installation and bombed at least one town in the rebel-held east.
But with Gaddafi going onto the offensive, the escalating level of violence is looking more like a real civil war by the day... this one could get real, real ugly-
AP:
One of those retaken was the strategic mountain town of Gharyan, the largest in the Nafusa Mountains, which overlooks Tripoli, a resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation. The town fell after dark Friday in a surprise attack, and the government troops detained officers who defected to the rebels and drew up lists of wanted protesters and started searching for them, the resident added.
Gadhafi supporters also have said they were in control of the city of Sabratha, west of Tripoli, which has seemed to go back and forth between the two camps in the past week........
In Zintan, 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Tripoli, residents said an attack by pro-Gadhafi forces Monday night was the second since the city fell in rebel hands late last month. But, they added, Gadhafi's loyalists were bringing in reinforcements.
One person in Zwara, which fell to anti-government forces days ago, said guards were posted at every sensitive building and all the entrances to the town.
"We are threatened every day by pro-Gadhafi forces," the nervous Zwara resident said, adding that a pro-Gadhafi figure met with the town's leaders a few days ago and told them they had "a choice" to go back in to orbit "and he will forget what happened, or else he is going to attack us with military force. He even offered us money."
One sergeant in the Libyan army who is of Tuareg ethnicity and is fighting on Gadhafi's side said the military is divided: "Us foreigners, we don't have much choice. We have to support Gaddafi,"....
"There is nothing that's going to convince Gaddafi to quit," the soldier said. "The only way Gaddafi is going to go is if someone puts a bullet in his head, and I can't imagine that. The soldiers who are close to him would never let it happen."
As noted here previously, Gaddafi's not stepping down on anybody's orders: the only way this one's going out is feet-first, just like he said from the start. The chance of a protracted, bloody civil war in Libya is now very real. The forces he's got left are loyal, able, and personally vested in the outcome: the rebels remain lightly armed, somewhat disorganized outside of Benghazi, and without a UN no-fly zone, at the mercy of savage air attacks.
The pro-Gaddafi forces' offensive capabilities may appear feeble, yet it is hard to envision the opposition taking the capitol anytime soon, either. But time is largely on the rebels' side if they can hold territorial gains, take some outside assistance, then start to collect oil revenues from their territory (they currently hold 80% of the oilfields)... thus the sense of urgency and increasingly aggressive strategy of the pro-Gaddafi troops as they aim to put an end to all that while they still can.
Even though things continue to look on-the-balance grim for the regime, almost any outcome is still possible in Libya... up to and including an against-all-odds comeback Gaddafi victory.
Besides expanding territory around Tripoli, pro-Gaddafi forces also pushed east for the first time today, taking a small town and advancing on a large arms depot in rebel-held territory-
BBC:
Forces loyal to the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are moving into rebel territory in the east, taking the small town of Brega.
The BBC's John Simpson in the nearby city of Ajdabiya says the 100-vehicle convoy is expected to advance towards it, and have bombed an arms dump there.......
It has a large arms dump which has been bombed several times by pro-Gaddafi forces.
The loyalists are now only a couple of miles from Ajdabiya, the defenders say.
The rebels are determined to put up a fight but it remains to be seen whether this translates into an organised defence of the city, our correspondent says.
Interestingly, a British Special Air Service (SAS) unit has already been operating quietly in Libya for over a week, playing a part in evacuating foreign oil workers. But the elite commandos are reportedly now poised to seize Col Gaddafi's 10-ton mustard gas stash out in the Libyan desert... probably not a bad idea at this point.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent a couple ships to the area yesterday, but what the Libyan resistance really needs from the international community -a no-fly zone established over Libya- seems now a non-starter: while the idea's been bounced around the UN Security Council, reality quickly set-in as to just what they'd be undertaking in attempting to control the airspace of a country twice the size of France while facing substantial Libyan AA defenses.
The Russians have called Gaddafi a "living political corpse", but they sure don't seem to have any interest in contributing to such a UN no-fly zone operation, suggesting "sanctions" instead... you know, like the ones that worked so well in Iran. But nobody else down there at the UN has got the backbone to do anything either, while the US and UK's armed forces are already stretched to the limit with other commitments... not to mention our own leadership issues.
As for the embattled Gaddafi regime, they could care less, anyway: until a recent reconciliation with the West, they've rarely not been under sanctions for as long as anybody can remember... and will continue to do pretty much as they please.
Updates as they come here at Reaganite Republican
UPDATE 7:34am EST: Gaddafi swears to fight
"to the last man and woman in Libya" -here-
Live streaming coverage of developments in Libya -here-
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The Telegraph BBC Pookie's Toons Aljazeera
AP via MyWay ABC
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Monday, February 28, 2011
Perhaps the better question is:
"can rag-tag rebels take Tripoli anytime soon?"
He's lost 3/4 of Libyan territory... army desertions rampant... international community now attempting to employ the stage-hook... so how's the 'mad dog of the Middle East'
still hanging on?
First, there's a real reason the Libyan Army can't solve this all as cleanly as was done in Egypt: distrusting military officers like himself who possess the desire -and ability- to stage coups,
Col Gaddafi long ago emasculated his own army, rendering them largely unable to topple him. They possess the oldest weapons, have limited intelligence capabilities, and number a mere 50,000 men. This brings the dawning realization of what Gaddafi meant last week by "this is not Egypt, this is not Tunisia."
And while many have been encouraged by pictures of soldiers joining up with the protesters, defections to this point have been along tribal lines- not something entirely unexpected. The fact is that there's simply no unitary, disciplined military force in Libya today with the ablity to quickly push Gaddafi aside...
The Air Force is a bit more impressive and loyal than the ground troops, and outside of a couple well-publicized defections, most of them have shown no compunction whatsoever in buzzing, bombing, strafing civilian protesters on the orders of the Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution (brothers can be cruel... but this is something else).
And Col Gaddafi has clearly been planning for this eventuality for decades... all the pieces are in place: support now comes from fiercely loyal militias and armed "revolutionary committees" who are -as the last line of defense- sworn to Gaddafi and/or his sons personally, as well as co-opted tribes and black African mercenaries. All these parties have a large personal stake in the outcome and are willing to kill almost anyone to protect it. This motivation also applies to the foreign fighters...there's surely little good waiting for them back in Chad.
At the vanguard of pro-Gaddafi forces is 5th son Khamis Gaddafi and his crack special forces unit, one that's already played a large part in putting down unrest in the capitol- and in the most ruthless fashion imaginable. Khamis Gaddafi is cut from a different cloth than his international playboy brothers: trained at a top Russian military academy, he's the one who hired black African mercenaries who really don't mind shooting Libyans... unlike many of the army regulars.
Alas, Moammar Gaddafi himself has got little to lose at this point: after unleashing air power and even naval shelling upon protesters, he surely faces war crimes charges at The Hague... provided that he even makes it out of the country alive. It's now down to kill or be killed... a no-brainer for a bloodthirsty megalomaniac like this one.
Both the old man and his son/spokesman Saif al-Islam have stated publicly that they'll fight to the death, with "rivers of blood", etc.- and I believe them. How much of the country they drag into the abyss -or if Gaddafi manages to turn the tide- is most of what remains in doubt.
Actually, some experts see Gaddafi already winning. And if not, he'll arm allied tribes if he has to... likely leading to a bloody civil war. Seems logical to expect some sort of Gaddafi military offensive in the coming week, before any aid reaches the rebellious east.
And hey, it's not like he doesn't have any friends left...
On the rebel side, things have gone quite well to this point, and they've even been pledged US support over the weekend. What a shame it is that the kiss-of-death has arrived in the form of an Obama endorsement. I sure hope they're not aware of the implications in that- guy sure knows how to pick a loser.
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