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Today's Top News
Cakewalk? Libya's Future Far from Guaranteed
WASHINGTON -- Muammar Gaddafi seems all but done for as rebel forces snatch the capital from under his nose. The scenes in Tripoli are redolent of the April 2003 morning when a US-led invasion force entered Baghdad - the invasion was to be a ''cakewalk'' and the troops would be coming home in a matter of months.
People celebrate Sunday's news of uprising in Tripoli against Gaddafi's regime. The Libyan intervention has been different - and harder. While Baghdad fell in a few weeks, it took months of aerial bombardment by NATO air forces to clear the way for Libya's rebels - but the rebels entered Tripoli on their own, rather than on the heels of a foreign invasion force.
Because of Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington and the rest of the allied capitals, including Canberra, have been reluctant to be seen to be planning to ''manage'' the new Libya. On Sunday a senior American military officer shared his concerns with The New York Times: "There [is] no clear plan for a political succession or for maintaining security in the country. The [African and Arab] leaders I have talked to do not have a clear understanding how this will play out."
The rebel National Transitional Council, recognized by 32 countries, has undertaken to reissue their greenhorn fighters with a booklet on the finer points of human rights and laws of war.
The Americans disposed of the security forces in Iraq, but the transitional council says it plans to retain parts of the Libyan security machine. However, the rebels will want to run the show.
And even the transitional council remains an unknown quantity.
The murder of its military commander, Abdel Fatah Younis, remains unexplained, as does the dissolution this month of the rebel cabinet - and the failure to appoint a new one.
In a part of the world in which power brokers have mastered the art of telling the West what it wants to hear while getting on with their local agendas, it remains to be seen if signs of what has been read as evidence of common sense, democratic instinct, idealism and decency are to be deployed on behalf of all Libyans - or competing tribal blocks relishing a first opportunity in decades to test their relative strength.
Rebel forces in the western city of Misrata, Libya's third-biggest, have gone out of their way to register their contempt for the transitional council with foreign reporters, insisting that they refuse to take instructions from Benghazi.
And it is the rebels in the west of the country - from Misrata through to the Nafusa Mountains - who made the tactical gains that forced Gaddafi to his knees. If the rebel officers and politicians from the country's west get to Tripoli before the Benghazi caravan, the international community could find itself dealing with a very different transitional leadership. Shashank Joshi, of the Royal United Services Institute in London, wrote at the weekend: "It is naive to imagine that long-simmering tribal grievances … will not prove incredibly divisive. The Warfalla, Tarhuna, Magarha and Warshafana tribes have all made enemies, but their real or imagined mistreatment by the transitional council during a post-conflict period would be highly destabilizing."
And what do the rebels inherit after 40-plus years of Gaddafi's iron fist? A shell of a country bereft of credible institutions and any sense of a civil society. And the transition plans devised by the council to quiet international anxiety? "Hogwash," says a foreign diplomat now in Libya.
NATO said last night it was ready to help build the new Libya - "a state based on freedom, not fear; democracy, not dictatorship; the will of the many, not the whims of the few."
That's all well and good, but we have yet to see what the Libyans want - or what their new leaders will allow them to have.
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46 Comments so far
Show AllNATO said last night it was ready to help build the new Libya - "a state based on freedom, not fear; democracy, not dictatorship; the will of the many, not the whims of the few."
LOL.
If the Libyans ever did manage to set up another decent state, NATO will be there to destroy it and impose a western owned media with a puppet head of state dependent on western money for their survival and loyal to Western powers so they could steal the oil and the gold at the price while leaving the population poor.
Simply amazing that still no major media coverage (including the NYT) has related this (and other) African/Middle East wars to Thomas Barnett's 2006 Naval War College book and strategy, "The Pentagon's New Map", which promulgates the current plan of the global corporate/financial/militarist Empire controlling our former country, to capture the entire 5000 miles swath of "GAP" countries from Mauritania to the Chinese boarder.
Even the leftist sites are not mentioning "The Pentagon's New Map" --- any talk of Globalization being 'global empire' by a nicer name is a dead letter.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Liberty & democracy
over
violent
empire
New America People's Party 2012 -- our last change against the 'Globalism' that is the post nation-state global empire
When the automatic system is not working, use "<" then"p" then ">" for a paragraph break. :)
This is exactly what is going on NOW! NATO is there to destroy the nation of Libya and steal the oil. This was no bunch of rebels. These forces were trained, armed and paid by the nations that want that oil. NATO bombed the population and then brought in more armed troops by sea to attack the capital.
Can anyone believe what the corrupt government of the United States says---you know, the "official story". You all know the old story on how to tell if a politician is lying, don't you? His lips are moving. Check out what Obumer says. Are his lips moving?
Under Gadhafi the oil belongs to the people of the nation and funds were used for education, health care, homes for the people and a massive water project to turn the dry land green. Libya has the highest standard of living of any nation in Africa. You wait and see what will happen if the people who can't drive out the foreign invaders. Take a look at Afghanistan and Iraq for the future of Libya. And that is our future too. The bastards that rule this nation don't care about you or your family. You are not in the club. You don't count.
If you heard the 'news' on TV you must face the fact that you are being lied to and washed over with high priced propaganda. Remember, if a politician's lips are moving, he/she is lying.
Libyan patriots will never allow the NATO occupation rebels to have stable control over their country. The result will be another Iraq or Afghan style resistance war. Arrogant imperialist Obama, back in March, said that he would conquer Libya in "days, not weeks." But the war will never end.
Winning the war against ghaddafi will be the 'easy' part - keeping the Central Banking jackals at bay will prove to be much harder - especially since they are bankrolling the rebels and I believe have already set up the framework for a Libyan Central Bank - then Libyans can also learn to be debt slaves to the rothschilds et al.
Wheeee. More Oil Based Imperialism and it's offshore colonies. I hope NATO, especially the US, UK and Canada realize that they will be garrisoning Imperial troops here to assure the oil supply from now until the final Collapse...
Oh, and BTW, we have just assured the creation of hundreds more freedom figh... I mean 'terrists(tm)' for the US to continue it's obscene levels of Murder Machine, I mean 'Defence Department' spending...
"And what do the rebels inherit after 40-plus years of Gaddafi's iron fist? A shell of a country bereft of credible institutions and any sense of a civil society."
But certainly not bereft of oil and a huge underground aquifer, both ripe for the picking by multinational corporations. And don't expect credible institutions and a sense of a civil society any time soon, as those things tend to get in the way of resource exploitation (plunder) and financial aid (loan sharking) by banks and corporations.
What they had WAS a civil society. They will probably never have one again.
The Libyan boarders were drawn up by western imperialists decades ago(like Iraq)... that encircle two rival tribes(like Iraq)...I suspect that what will ensue will be a bloody civil war(like Iraq)... Then the corporate "Shock doctrine" will take effect(like Iraq)...
American imperialism under the guise of humanitarianism is not to be trusted and all the liberal sheep that have supported this NATO aggression have been taken for a ride by the warmongerng neocons led by Hillary Clinton who was such an enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
We love dictators who support our "interests" and oppose those who don't. Who will get the Libyan oil??
As Gaddaffi still holds on somewhere --
evidently to try to make claims on the nation from afar?
Three sons now captured --
but a nation of people oppressed by Daffi, by torture and intimdiation
is now overe.
Many sacrificed their lives for this time -- an honest intent -- and perhaps
this time the old boss will not be replaced by a new boss who's the same
as the old boss?
Global Warming will turn the tide of the dictator and oppressor -- but it
will also end our time on this planet.
"You ate the hotdogs, I see."
very nice turn of phrase.
right up there with drinking the "kool-ade"
even better.
sometimes the dead do belch and fart.
As of a couple of hours ago, Qadhafy was holed up in his compound in Tripoli.
"The Libyan intervention has been different - and harder. While Baghdad fell in a few weeks, it took months of aerial bombardment by NATO air forces to clear the way for Libya's rebels - but the rebels entered Tripoli on their own, rather than on the heels of a foreign invasion force."
This is premature triumphalism - another wishful, needlessly self-contratulatory, "mission accomplished" moment, what with the arch evil doer of the month (Muammar Gaddafi) "all but done for as rebel forces snatch the capital" indeed.
Is this situation really all that different? Assuming Gaddafi does fall from power, was NATO's military intervention in Libya actually harder than the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq?
As I recall it, there was no actual Iraqi "rebel" force in the field when the shock & awe aerial campaign of 2003 was followed up by the ground troop blitzkrieg up the turnpike from Kuwait City to Baghdad. That iconic photo of the Saddam statute toppling amidst a jubilant crowd, complete with a momentary US flag snippet for the stateside evening news, turned out to be a staged photo op. For some reason, the footage on ABC and NBC last night from Tripoli gave me a sense of deja vu.
The moment of truth at any cakewalk takes place shortly after the music stops.
p>Bill from Saginaw
Oh yes, it is "guaranteed" but not as the Cyrenaicans might want it to be "guaranteed". There will be a pro-forma government of the "rebels" but there will be a US.UK.French puppeteer to whom they will be beholden for "freedom and democracy", a puppeteer who will tell them who gets the lucrative oil contracts. In anticipation of the coming "puppeteering" oil prices have already fallen. US.UK.French (a.k.a. FUKUS) will not quietly walk away from this pot of gold. No sirree.
FUKUS! Thats great! Perfectly apt.
agreed!
"the rebels entered Tripoli on their own" -- with months of NATO bombings, weapons supplied, military expertise and transport, and helicopter gun ships in front of them. Hardly 'on their own'. This a NATO and imperial invasion.
The naive Australian thinks the neoliberal globalists controlling North Atlantic Terrorist Organization have any interest in "democracy."
The Northern Alliance was also a NATO-backed rebel group that entered Kabul triumphantly. We see how Afghanistan turned out. Even Kosovo remains crime-infested backwater with the prime minister being recently accused of operating a criminal network of organ traffickers.
We've seen this script too recently and seen it end badly every time. I'd be surprised if Libya doesn't collapse into warring inter-tribal conflict.
"The Northern Alliance was also a NATO-backed rebel group that entered Kabul triumphantly. We see how Afghanistan turned out."
my thoughts exactly.
Karzai is not running for Afghan President again, so he's available for the puppet job in Libya.
The translation from the imperialist 'human rights' babble of the phrasing below is that NATO is now ready to ensure the plundering of the region with Libya being the new fortress for the Pentagon in North Africa.--------------------------------------------------------------------------
'NATO said last night it was ready to help build the new Libya - "a state based on freedom, not fear; democracy, not dictatorship; the will of the many, not the whims of the few."'
The pathetic fools and warmongers who supported the assault on Libya (including a whole wack of people who call themselves "progressives") are no better than the bloodthirsty hoards who supported the assault on Iraq. They will soon realize their folly, but as always, it will be too late.
al Q'yote's like cholesterol - there's good and there's bad.
.
It seems that NATO and the US once again targeted the family of Gaddafi and not the man himself. Gaddafi's weakness has always been his large and extended family, so NATO seems to have actually targeted his sons for their winning attack. And behind the Pentagon onslaught in Libya, who is waiting in the scenes behind the US war machine? Perhaps it's none other than this man who Time Magazine wrote about way back in it's April 1, 2011 edition...
'...The last time a Libyan leader traveled to the U.S. and Europe to talk to his international counterparts, he wore desert robes, slept in a Bedouin tent, and vilified the West in incomprehensible diatribes. Now, the Libyan leader holed up in meetings with top diplomats in foreign capitals wears a suit and tie, speaks flawless English, and flaunts a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. In brief: Mahmoud Gebril is about as jolting a contrast from Muammar Gaddafi as one can imagine.'
YES, Mahmoud Gibril, NATO's Libyan 'leader', was cultivated and grown in Pittsburgh, USA. For more information about Mahmoud Gebril (or Jibril) check out the wikipedia entry on him. It is quite educational.
It can be taken that way, but actually I thought of it also as one way to express how one has often to thread lightly on so many of today's political web sites. You can 'pinch' but not really be too open in verbalizing opposition to whatever the dominant political line might be on those websites, or the 'moderators' will often remove you off their sites if you state your opinion more forcibly. Hence... pinchy way.
"That's all well and good, but we have yet to see what the Libyans want - or what their new leaders will allow them to have."
Who needs leaders when all Libyans can lead?
Direct democracy
You will walk up a mountain, and the journey to the top will be difficult. But when you get there you realize the beauty of your accomplishment and the hardship you overcame to get there. And as you keep walking you start to come down the mountain, and you are sad to see what you worked so hard for is now behind you. But when you get to the bottom of the mountain, do not regret that you are no longer on top. Just realize you are in a valley and there is a new mountain for you to climb.
Here is the very latest report from Reuters picked up on Yahoo which shows that some of the other mainstream Western press coverage has been flawed and misleading at best....
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A son of Muammar Gaddafi who rebels said they had captured appeared with cheering supporters in Tripoli, giving a boost to forces loyal to the veteran leader trying to fight off insurgents who say they control most of the capital.
Saif al-Islam, who has been seen as his father's heir apparent, visited the Tripoli hotel where foreign journalists are staying to declare that the government was winning the battle against the rebels.
He took journalists to his father's Bab al-Aziziyah stronghold. Television footage showed Saif pumping his fists in the air, smiling, waving and shaking hands with supporters, as well as holding his arms aloft with each hand making the V for victory sign.
"We broke the back of the rebels. It was a trap. We gave them a hard time, so we are winning," Saif said.
...and the report continues
While I admire the tremendous courage of the people of Libya as they seek freedom and human rights, I continue to regret their decision to embrace violent rather than nonviolent means. History teaches that we cannot shoot and kill our way to freedom or human rights. The the process is as important as the outcome; the means we use become our end result.
LizfromLansing, the mechanical US pacifist formulas hardly fit the world, is that not the case? Just how were the people of Libya supposed to react when NATO embraced them in the Pentagon's deathly grip?
Woohoo! another a-rab/muslim and his family toppled! Let the rape and plundering begin.
All we know for sure is that the West will steal their oil and install a puppet.