Libya
It isn’t possible to verify most of what is coming out, but the fact that government security people have deserted the hotel where the foreign journalists are staying is a pretty good indicator that the official government spokesman has taken on the role of ‘Baghdad Bob’ in the current situation.
It would appear that Colonel ‘However You Spell His Name’ is toast, extra crispy.
The rebels report arresting his two sons, who seem to have forgotten that they would fight to the death, and the major activity in Tripoli seems to be people sewing the new flags to prove they didn’t support government, rather than massing in the streets to stop the rebel advance.
It looks more and more like it is time for a rousing chorus of ‘Ding dong the whacko’s gone…’
4 comments
It seems only a few weeks ago that right wingers were blasting Obama for not doing more in Libya. I’m sure they’re going to give him all the credit for this outcome :twisted:. Uhm, yeah, right :).
Obama is an Eisenhower Republican, but what this points out is that Eisenhower Republicans do have one advantage over the Bushevik kind or even conservative Democrats — they don’t get the U.S. involved in quagmires. Let us not forget that Eisenhower managed to get the Korean quagmire resolved and refused to get the U.S. involved in the Vietnam quagmire when the French whined for help. Eisenhower Republicans prefer to work behind the scenes when it’s time to overthrow pesky governments they don’t like — just ask Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Someone I know with connections in the Special Forces community says that the SF were very much involved behind the scenes. It appears to me, however, that the main issue leading to this outcome is that the good Colonel simply ran out of cash to pay his mercenaries, due to the embargo in importing cash from outside the country and the fact that oil production has been shut down for months. And you know what happens when a mercenary doesn’t get paid… he tends to decide it’s time to go home :twisted:.
Actually, Libya was the Dave and Nicky show. Britain and France wanted the intervention, and Colonel ‘However You Spell His Name’ had managed to piss off just about everyone on the the planet, which is why the Arab League and the Security Council voted to take him out.
We did what we do best – air superiority – and dropped back to our standard UN support role. I don’t see that Obama had a lot of options if he wanted to keep NATO support in Afghanistan.
Dave and Nicky really wanted a military victory to help them politically, and this was a low risk operation as long as there were no boots on the ground.
Six months isn’t bad, although people are claiming it could have been done faster. The problem with a more intense bombing campaign is that it would have meant more civilian casualties. The other problem is that the rebels needed to feel they did it, or it wouldn’t be their victory. You have to have a successful and credible fight to have a successful nation in the aftermath.
The rebel forces ground it out and formed a basic army that they can build upon for a national defense force, something that is lacking in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I can’t see that victory in Libya is going to help Cameron very much. The imminent new recession, law and order and to a lesser extent, blow back from the Newscorp scandals will take precedence over the good services provided by the RAF and the SAS/SBS in Libya
I agree that intervening events have completely overshadowed any advantage he might have gained. It probably does help the MoD and troops to be involved in a ‘win’ after the disasters that Iraq and Afghanistan have become.
In the end people vote on the economy, and he has screwed that up, just like the US government.