Gaddafi is history! Tripoli is free!

[Tycho]

Won't be long now until Gaddafi is captured hiding out in a spider hole, and summarily executed for some of the atrocities commited by the Libyan military and numerous other things as well. Maybe it will be a democratic government, it's just amazing that the Rebels have even gotten as far as they have, last thing I heard of them they were in a stalemate in the east fighting against the Libyan military in small towns and whatnot.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

 

[Winner]

Is Berlusconi as much of a pervert in Europe as he appears in America?

We get much more news on his... exploits, so yes. Bunga bunga, baby

 

[Agent Cooper]

Some media report that Gaddafis youngest son has been killed in action (he's in charge of one of the Gaddafi loyal units), but it has not yet been confirmed.

What is certain though is that the move on Tripoli was planned well ahead and the rebels made deals with high ranking generals to surrender their men when the operation was initiated. To add, several rebel pockets hiding inside Tripoli sprung into action at the same time.

I'd love to have seen Gaddafis face when he realized that he had essentially just been screwed over. Justice is served.

 

[innonimatu]

Some media report that Gaddafis youngest son has been killed in action (he's in charge of one of the Gaddafi loyal units), but it has not yet been confirmed.

I could swear I had read those exact same stories months ago. Not only does Qaddafi keeps fleeing the country, his sons also keep being killed. Journalists, they'll swallow and regurgitate anything... perhaps it was, even now, too early to believe it was over.

I'd love to have seen Gaddafis face when he realized that he had essentially just been screwed over. Justice is served.

You think he was surprised? If he was he would indeed be history by now.

 

[Winner]

NATO helicopter gunships are allegedly aiding the rebels in their fight for Tripoli.

I wonder why the pro-Gaddafi combatants haven't given up already. They're probably too desperate, for some reason or another.

 

[Ayn Rand]

NATO helicopter gunships are allegedly aiding the rebels in their fight for Tripoli.

I wonder why the pro-Gaddafi combatants haven't given up already. They're probably too desperate, for some reason or another.

They probably perceive themselves as fighting colonialism in some way. Also, they are being coordinated by foreign backers [Chinese intelligence/special forces] and finally, life is short - may as well have a good fight when you get the chance. Those fighters who survive [the majority] will settle in with the new regime or will leave and go into retirement in foreign countries [for which they need to earn loyalty points by not going down too easily].

There are also few examples in history of a State going down without a good fight. The kind of people who get involved in State operations tend to have a relaxed attitude to combat and death.

 

[amadeus]

Bob Beckel on FOX just said Libya was a former French colony.

 

[TopGearFanatic]

When is NATO going to admit that they pretty much have been doing the real fighting the whole time? Not just "protecting civilians".

 

[bombshoo]

Bob Beckel on FOX just said Libya was a former French colony.

Maybe he was referring to the French occupation of Fezzan during WWII....

But I doubt it.

 

[Dachs]

Bob Beckel on FOX just said Libya was a former French colony.

It might as well have been a joint Anglo-French protectorate during the First World War.

But yeah, he ****ed up.

 

[GoodGame]

They probably perceive themselves as fighting colonialism in some way. Also, they are being coordinated by foreign backers [Chinese intelligence/special forces] and finally, life is short - may as well have a good fight when you get the chance. Those fighters who survive [the majority] will settle in with the new regime or will leave and go into retirement in foreign countries [for which they need to earn loyalty points by not going down too easily].

There are also few examples in history of a State going down without a good fight. The kind of people who get involved in State operations tend to have a relaxed attitude to combat and death.

Where'd you get this info? Is that the "mercenaries" that Gadaffi was reportedly using? Is this the first proxy war for China in the 21st C. or something?

 

[innonimatu]

NATO helicopter gunships are allegedly aiding the rebels in their fight for Tripoli.

I wonder why the pro-Gaddafi combatants haven't given up already. They're probably too desperate, for some reason or another.

You listen too much to the disinformation seeded by NATO. It has been obvious from the start that journalists have been manipulated (or willingly collaborating?) by western intelligence. Qaddafi had, and apparently still has, some (how much, we still don't know) genuine support within Libya, and this has all along been a palace coup over a background of tribal (personal) loyalties to the players in this coup. The leaders being promoted among these rebels are, by now, all former lieutenants of Qaddafi.

All the stories, repeatedly announced since the very start of the war, that he'd fled Libya were meant to have him do just that (pipe dream!), or to cause the defection of other members of the regime (partly successful). Now the story that the capital had already fallen and he'd been captured/killed/again fled served the same purpose. If the planners for NATO truly believed that the war was won, they would not be having presidents and prime-ministers now still calling for Qaddafi's surrender. It's not won yet, they're clearly nervous, which means that this advance on Tripoli may have been a riskier gamble than it seems. I suspect that what you asked here, Winner, actually happened, there are western troops in Tripoli and they can't be kept there much longer unnoticed, despite the lousy quality of what passes for journalism.

 

[Ayn Rand]

Where'd you get this info? Is that the "mercenaries" that Gadaffi was reportedly using? Is this the first proxy war for China in the 21st C. or something?

The whole thing is a proxy war isn't it? I'm basing my accusation of Chinese involvement on their initial decision to send a frigate to the area, which presumably served as a platform for inserting special forces assets and for conducting communications and electronic warfare.

I don't know where it is now, no doubt it completed its "humanitarian mission" to protect its citizens in Libya [note that Britain used this same cover story to reinforce its own units on the ground].


There is of course no firm evidence of involvement by any outside party [either Chinese or SAS etc], except that it seems quite clear that the usual game is being played, between the usual suspects, in the usual way

 

[Agent Cooper]

You think he was surprised? If he was he would indeed be history by now.

Of course he was.

The general in charge of the battalion responsible for the defence of Tripoli, had made a secret deal with the rebels months ago. His command would drop their weapons and surrender as soon as the rebels moved on Tripoli. He has been siding with the rebels all along. If Gaddafi had any knowledge of this beforehand or even the slighest suspicion, the general would surely had been removed and executed long ago.

 

[Ajidica]

The whole thing is a proxy war isn't it? I'm basing my accusation of Chinese involvement on their initial decision to send a frigate to the area, which presumably served as a platform for inserting special forces assets and for conducting communications and electronic warfare.

Yay paranoia!

 

[innonimatu]

The whole thing is a proxy war isn't it? I'm basing my accusation of Chinese involvement on their initial decision to send a frigate to the area, which presumably served as a platform for inserting special forces assets and for conducting communications and electronic warfare.

I wouldn't go as far as believing that the chinese would get militarily involved in any way, not even by supplying weapons: they tried that in the 1960s and 70s and failed, they're careful, very careful.
But this has been a war over oil money and Libya's foreign contracts, of course. One recent news piece I've heard is that the french government just bagged a major oil deal with the rebels for Total. And I'm sure that the chinese and (and other asian) construction companies operating in Libya will be replaced. And that may mean that in the next war there will be at least chinese weapons supplied to the government under attack...

Of course he was.

The general in charge of the battalion responsible for the defence of Tripoli, had made a secret deal with the rebels months ago. His command would drop their weapons and surrender as soon as the rebels moved on Tripoli. He has been siding with the rebels all along. If Gaddafi had any knowledge of this beforehand or even the slighest suspicion, the general would surely had been removed and executed long ago.

Oh, he was? Because finding Qaddafi, or even the conquest of Tripoli, is proving a cakewalk, isn't it? And it's not as if the very same thing hadn't been done in Iran in 2003, was it? Replace him and the next one gets bribed. Knowing that, why not leave him in place, wait for the invasion and the urban battle, then pull the rug under him and surprise everyone by actually putting up a fight. Not saying it happened, but it may be happening...

 

[Incodcito]

Good for the Libyans. And Kudos to the Allies in intervening.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Gaddhafi: "Imperialism returns again..."
He might be a toon but he is right

Yeah, and if the West had let Gaddhafi quashed the rebellion with his bombings and mercenaries, I guess the imperialists would have been the allies of dictators.

No matter what Western powers do, they are necessarily wrong. And if I have to choose, I like better being wrong in siding with rebels fighting a murderous bastard than being wrong in siding with a murderous bastard slaughtering his own people.

 

[Marla_Singer]

They probably perceive themselves as fighting colonialism in some way.

No one gives a crap of Gaddhafi's irrational speech. People who kept fighting for Gaddhafi were only scared for their own life.

And if they were scared for their life is because they participated to the 42-year-old machine of fear which kept Gaddhafi in power.

If Libyans are so happy Gaddhafi is gone, it's because they feel relieved from a fear they endured during their whole life.

 

[asbestos]

I think it's premature to say that Libya will be a NATO puppet. A revolution is a chaotic process and nobody really knows what's going to happen next.