Though it was believed that the Gadhafi forces had abandoned their direct assault on the city of Misrata, that appears to have been premature. In a surprise attack the forces once again attacked from a different angle, following a march through the desert.
The latest attack saw regime forces heavily shelling Misrata’s port and a number of rockets were also fired against the city in an offensive which continued into the night. The strikes temporarily halted foreign aid into the city.
Misrata is the last major rebel-held city in West Libya, and has been under near constant attack for weeks. It is also the home of a UN humanitarian aid effort which the regime agreed to.
The situation in Misrata is one of the last sticking points for what many believe will be a stalemate in the ongoing civil war. Outside of Misrata, the two factions control mostly contiguous parts of the country, setting the stage for a partition.
I can't even bring myself to read about this travesty anymore. The world is fucked up. We humans are fucked up.
Where were you when Russian invaded Chechnya and brutally massacred Vjechen people from 1994-1996. 130.000 Chechen got massacred. Where were you when Putin committed terrorist act by bombing civilian apartment in Mosco massacring his own people and blamed it on Chechen then invaded Chechnyaagain with 200.000 massacred. 330.000 people got exterminated using cluster, vaccum and uranium bombs. The western countries never stood up to save the Chechen people because it was a Russian matter even though Chechnya got oil flowing on it's own. Hence, Georgy Bushy learned from his body Putin the trick and committed 911. Evil elite who are ruling this earth will soon or later collapse and will be barried under their tressures and justice will be spread on this earth. Not by sheeples but by good conscionable people.
Where was I? In the United States of Oblibium. Believing everything the teevee told me, busy working my ass off to save enough money for retirement, to buy a house and to put two kids thru college. Care to ask me how well all that has gone for me? Better yet, care to ask me again where I am today?
Coincidentally, Fidel Castro has done similar things with his people. So have the Chinese. And the Turks. But you don't hear anybody talking about it either. In fact, if some of us dare speak about certain of those taboo regimes, we're chastised, demonized and terrorized by the ones who think they are paying attention and know the truth, much like you.
"The situation in Misrata is one of the last sticking points for what many believe will be a stalemate in the ongoing civil war. Outside of Misrata, the two factions control mostly contiguous parts of the country, setting the stage for a partition."
"…many believe…" , "…setting the stage for partition…"
It appears that Jason has — understandably –been taken in by the ongoing massive propaganda campaign being waged by the West and directed at anyone with any interest in the Libyan affair, that is to say the populations of the US and all of Europe. The counter-flow of truthful information is meager to begin with, and what little there is then dutifully suppressed — ignored mostly — or spun by the MSM. For example, the situation is so bad for the West and the rebels, that "stalemate" and "partition" is the best face they can put on the "total victory" and departure(or death) of Gaddafi that they clearly would prefer.
Let's take a peek behind the curtain and try to figure out what's real.
First go and Google up the facts about Libya's military equipment inventory. Consider tanks. Wikipedia says they have 1,900 tanks. If only half that number were operational to begin with, let's say the had 950 tanks. Now you've seen the tv footage. How many of those 950 tanks have been destroyed or captured? Is 50 a fair number? Gaddafi didn't send massive tank columns of hundreds of tanks toward Bengazi at the start of his campaign against the rebels. How can I say this? Because if he had, and Nato had blasted them, we would absolutely without question see celebratory video footage of those hundreds of blasted tanks and their support vehicles on fire and littering the desert. Instead, we've seen,… how many? Ten, fifteen? You get my point. Gaddafi didn't send hundreds of tanks to put down the uprising in Bengazi, because he didn't need to. Ten or twenty was all he needed, and that's how many he sent. So he has, oh, maybe 900 tanks still deployable.
But wait! Admiral Mullet says the NATO forces have degraded Gaddafi's military by 30-40 percent. Adjusted for propaganda "inflation", I guess the real number at more like 15-20 percent. Applying the 20 percent number leaves Gaddafi with 720 operational and deployable tanks. And if you still think this "calculation" is suspect, consider that anti-tank weapons top the list of arms being considered for supply to the rebels.
How many tanks do the rebels have? You get my point.
By comparison, the "rebels" — NATO's quisling leadership and an enthusiastic mob of amateur fighters (all the skilled fighters are Islamist ex-mujahadeen,…I mean, really!) — are basically out there with almost no gear and a bunch special forces "advisers". That's not a stalemate, it's a military farce papered over with propaganda.
Let's take just one more piece of the BS being fed to the folks at home in front of their television sets (big, flat screen hi-def tv's. Great picture!) "THE LETHAL PREDATOR DRONES ARE COMING!!" Do you think this scared Gaddafi? Do you think he thought to himself, "Allah Akbar! my time of martyrdom is surely here." Riiiight!!! Especially when you take note that after the announced deployment of the Predators, one of the media outlets — dare I say the one that didn't get "the memo" — happened to mention that the deployment consisted of only two Predators. That's right, not ten, or fifteen, or twenty,…TWO!
Now, all that's fine. The Predators are great propaganda on the home front. But if it isn't all just desperate Kabuki to distract from an up-to-this-point impulsive adventurist clusterfock courtesy of BHL, Sarkozy, Cameron, and the "please-lead-me-somewhere" Obama, then why have you not heard the number two — as in just two Predators — since that first slip of the pen?
In summary: there is no stalemate, there will be no partition. It's either a full scale deployment — the whole nine yards of a ground campaign by NATO forces — or Gaddafi wins…. probably by some kind of "diplomatic solution" involving some sort of political "reform" or electoral Kabuki so the NATO political dicks can back off without losing too much face.
Anyway, YMMV, so we'll all just have to wait and see. Interesting times for sure.