An Italy-based NGO has reported that the situation in Libya, just across the Mediterranean Sea, is getting enormously grim according to witnesses, and that the death toll from the regime’s massacres have surpassed 1,000.
The group, Arab World Communities in Italy, also reported that the hospitals in Libya’s major cities have been completely overwhelmed by the attacks by the regime. Defectors have reported that the military is bombing protesters in the major cities.
The government, which has been interspercing denials of massacres with claims that anyone resists will be killed, insisted that the death toll was “only” 300 protesters, which may be the first time a government claimed to have “only” massacred 300 of its own people.
Currently the Libyan regime has lost control of virtually the entire country, and is only barely hanging on in Tripoli. Many of their top officials have resigned, and despite claims by President Gadhafi to the contrary it is virtually impossible to believe they will retain power much longer.
Well this certainly brings things back down to earth, doesn't it?
There was such euphoria and excitement following the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. While the police were often brutal, the army was unwilling to crush the revolt.
Now for the first time we see a regime that IS willing to massacre the people – and one that apparently has loyal soldiers or mercenaries willing to carry out.
One can only hope that army defections end this bloodshed, and FAST
I foresee lots of people dancing the Tyburn jig before this is over.
News reports indicate that Qaddafi has hired mercenaries from Serbia and Uganda.
Several airforce pilots have defected to Malta. Two battle ships that were sent to bomb Benghazi diverted and deserted to Malta, as well.
"The Great Socialist People's Libya" will soon be freed by a nationalist, Islamist revolt. "There is only one God, and Gadhafi is the enemy of God," the rebels chant, and we have every reason to believe they will fight this to the bitter end.
I wonder if they will be able to punish those responsible for the massacres. African mercenaries – really just armed gangs from African countries to the south – were brought in to kill the rebels. Will they be captured and made to pay for their crimes? Let's hope so.
Question: why was Iraq invaded, and not Libya? Afghanistan, and not Libya? Because Gadhafi wasn't giving financial support to the Palestinian resistance, but Hussein had done so. See the difference. An extreme tyrant is allowed to stay in place, while a dictator who was a bastard but, we have learned, was sitting on a Shia-Sunni powderkeg and trying to keep it from erupting, is removed. Kaboom. Ouch. But all is good if it serves Israel, so says the lobby.
Oh come on, who wants to invade Lybia? It's not politically expedient at all.
It's too far from Iran, Syria and Israel to be of strategic relevance.
The Europeans would have been pissed off at activity so near to their southern border. No "coalition of the willing", here.
And can you imagine BushCo saying after 9/11 "Let's hang this onto Ghaddafi, find me anything he has done to justify an invasion. Maybe he was doing bioweapons…."? One would first have to remind the people in the street who Ghadaffi was in the first place. Saddam had been in the papers nonstop for a decade.
Libya was not invaded because after Iraq was invaded qaddaffi gave up his anti-western campaign and completely made a 180 and became like mubarak and all the other tin-pot dictators. Qaddaffis regime since 2003 is a super pro-western regime. It has been just as against "Islamists" as hosni mubarak and all the other US stooges. Will this lead to a bloody civil war? Of course the US and israel would love to see a civil war in egypt and libya as they enjoyed seeing Iran and Iraq go to war against each other. Anything that weakens the enemies of Israel is US foreign policy. They would love to see libya entrenched in a long civil war that brings their nation to disintegration. They would hate to see a united nationalist libya devoted to one cause, ridding the mid-east of zionist influence. That is precisely what Iran is, and as the US loses its grip on it's western stooges like gaddafi and others, you will see more nationalist causes and anti-zionist governments which will most likely lead to Israel turning the entire area into glass.
It`s a shame that so many people are willing to cheer on the removal of US-backed regimes while at the same time praising regimes like Iran, Syria and Libya for their anti-Israel stance.
Know what I find so horrible about all this?
The Arab world is currently swept up in a wave of revolution – casting out the US-backed regimes who rule them.
And here is Ghadafi – Arab nationalist and anti-imperial crusader – slaughtering his own revolutionary uprising in cold blood, flanked by two recently "liberated" states.
Call me crazy, but shouldn't the task fall to Tunisia and Egypt to save their Arab brothers?
The fact that this option isn't even being discussed (by ANYONE) is all you need to know about the state of Arab politics.
Of course they won't stop the slaughter – this is what we expect of Arab governments and so we don't even ask.
Send in the revolutionary armies of Tunisia and Egypt to save the Libyan people! What's the hold up?