Tunesia, Egyt and now Yemen: a domino effect in the Middle East?

This at least is encouraging.

Libya : aircraft crashes after crew refused to bomb Benghazi

This however is not, if all fails, bring up osma bin laden.

Rolling Eyes

• Gaddafi blames Libyan protests on Bin Laden

3 Replies

@revelette,

Quote:

Gaddafi blames Libyan protests on Bin Laden.

I think I could make a case for that. If Bin Laden had the scope to do it I can well see that he would have done.

1 Reply

@spendius,

Qaddafi sounds a bit insane. It seems his story features OBL running around putting roofies in the breakfast drinks of unsuspecting young Libyans, and suggesting that they stop obeying their parents...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/africa/25libya.html?exprod=myyahoo

At any rate, horrible killing going on in Libya.

2 Replies

@Lash,

I can't see 40 odd years in his job resulting in anything else but insanity. But his basic argument--that without him it's cha0s-- cannot be dismissed out of hand. If our various Rapid Reaction Forces could be guaranteed not to behave tribally I think a joint landing in the east might be worth a go.

2 Replies

@Lash,

Quote:

At any rate, horrible killing going on in Libya.

I have to ask. Were the words,

"At any rate, horrible killing going on in Nicaragua",

or things similar issuing from your mouth in the 1980s, Lash, when Reagan was having Nicaraguans by the thousands slaughtered?

1 Reply

@JTT,

God damn it JTT, why are you whitewashing the US' unsavory past by ignoring '83 Grenada!?

I knew you were a US sympathizer in Yank-hate clothes all along!

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

Quote:

God damn it JTT, why are you whitewashing the US' unsavory past by ignoring '83 Grenada!?

I knew you were a US sympathizer in Yank-hate clothes all along!

0 Replies

@spendius,

spendius wrote:

I can't see 40 odd years in his job resulting in anything else but insanity. But his basic argument--that without him it's cha0s-- cannot be dismissed out of hand. If our various Rapid Reaction Forces could be guaranteed not to behave tribally I think a joint landing in the east might be worth a go.

By whom? Might be a good drill for the EU force. I'm not holding my breath.

0 Replies

@spendius,

I will agree that some form of intervention might be seen as better than civil/tribal war and chaos. However, those same factors make intervention both difficult and full of hard-to-predict side effects.

Lastly, I don't think there is the will to do it among any of the possible candidates.

1 Reply

@revelette,

revelette wrote:

• Gaddafi blames Libyan protests on Bin Laden

I thought this was very interesting. I'm guessing that by accusing Bin Laden, Gaddafi is hoping to make himself seem like an anti-terrorist so as to try to garner sympathy from other countries (like the US) who have aligned themselves against terrorism. I think it's unlikely to work, and it seems like a desperate move on Gaddafi's part, but it's an interesting play.

2 Replies

@Irishk,

But he can be a force for Good when he issues a fatwa for the murder of someone we actually want to die. Twisted Evil

This is political Islam at it's best, and clearly demonstrates how compatible it is with democratic principles.

Nothing to worry about with the MB.

1 Reply

@revelette,

Would it not have been better for Anti-government forces, to say nothing of Libya of the future if the crew flew their bomber to Malta instead of letting it crash....plus they would be in a Sheridan right now, instead of schlepping through the desert.

The Colonel is clearly a clown, albeit a vicious and cruel one, but I have to laugh whenever anyone references bin Laden in a manner to suggest that he is simply a bogeyman used to scare children and paranoid Americans.

I encouraged by the fact that so many posters on this thread insist that Islamists are merely bogeymen, and need not be feared anymore than vampires or werewolves.

I've been able to sleep much better at night thanks to this thread.

Now I know that the would-be Islamist terrorist who wanted to bomb W's house and was just apprehended while he was trying to purchase bomb materials, is no more dangerous than Freddy Krueger.

3 Replies

@georgeob1,

Quote:

Lastly, I don't think there is the will to do it among any of the possible candidates.

Possibly not but there's a subtle shift in tone. It is not sufficient yet to think we are being "prepared" but it is in that direction.

In a discussion on Newsnight an American "intellectual" who was trying to defend his relationship with Saif Gaddafi let slip that "every" American university was taking funds from Saudi Arabia. It was said after that that the lady professors in these universities had on Ignore the rights of the Saudi sisterhood in order to get at cheap gas to drive to get their hair styled.

Isn't that amazing?

2 Replies

@rosborne979,

Quote:

I thought this was very interesting. I'm guessing that by accusing Bin Laden, Gaddafi is hoping to make himself seem like an anti-terrorist so as to try to garner sympathy from other countries (like the US) who have aligned themselves against terrorism. I think it's unlikely to work, and it seems like a desperate move on Gaddafi's part, but it's an interesting play.

I wonder if ros knows that the coloured block marked with a 1 goes underneath the one marked 2 on which, in turn, rests the block marked 3.

0 Replies

@rosborne979,

Quote:

I'm guessing that by accusing Bin Laden, Gaddafi is hoping to make himself seem like an anti-terrorist so as to try to garner sympathy from other countries (like the US) who have aligned themselves against terrorism.

Now that's really rich, Rosborne, suggesting that the US is against terrorism. For sure the US is against others committing terrorist acts against the US but the leading terrorist group in the world is the US government.

The US has the best terrorist training facility in the world at, is it Fort Benning, GA? It has graduated the largest number of terrorists who have committed the most acts of terrorism with the most casualties of any terrorist group in the world.

It daily commits acts of terrorism against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Those two illegal invasions were prime examples of massive terrorism.

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Quote:

but I have to laugh whenever anyone references bin Laden in a manner to suggest that he is simply a bogeyman used to scare children and paranoid Americans.

A nervous laugh, I'm sure.

American has a long history of creating boogeymen to keep its children and those like you with child like minds damn scared. And I have two words, Iraq/Afghanistan that illustrate just how well it has worked.

Do you think that the kids in Nicaragua have nightmares about the US trained and supported boogeymen who raped and tortured their parents and sometimes themselves?

Do you think the kids in Iraq and Afghanistan have to worry about the boogeymen who left all the Depleted Uranium and little bomblets lying around for them to play with?

How about the people of Laos where , what is it, a person every few days is maimed by the tons of ordnance left there that is specifically designed to cause maximum damage without killing?

You wonder about boogeymen, do you, Finn? Are you worried about these things happening to your kids?

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Would it not have been better for Anti-government forces, to say nothing of Libya of the future if the crew flew their bomber to Malta instead of letting it crash....

It is my understanding that the plane was a Sukhoi 22 (fighter/interceptor), not a heavy bomber, and that it only had fuel for a short trip and return.

0 Replies

@spendius,

spendius wrote:

Quote:
Lastly, I don't think there is the will to do it among any of the possible candidates.

Possibly not but there's a subtle shift in tone. It is not sufficient yet to think we are being "prepared" but it is in that direction.

I apparently have more confidence than you concerning the adversion of the affected European powers to action of that type.

1 Reply

Libyan: Qaddafi forces shoot hospital patients

A resident of the increasingly violent Libyan capital of Tripoli told CBS Radio News Thursday that armed supporters of Muammar Qaddafi, the country’s longtime leader, have stormed into hospitals to shoot wounded demonstrators and take dead bodies to an unknown location.

“They go in with guns into hospitals,” said the resident, identified only as Adel to protect his safety. “They take the bodies that are dead. In some hospitals, they have shot the wounded. This is true. I know it’s very strange for the States, but this is happening today in Tripoli.”…

That’s not the only action being taken to cover up what is happening in the capital, Adel said. Armed pro-government supporters Thursday were forcing people to help clean up parts of downtown Tripoli and paint buildings.

“There are some streets where he’s using the people in the houses; if they don’t go out, he will shoot them with gunpoint to do that,” Adel said.

0 Replies

@georgeob1,

Libyan oil is a particularly valuable commodity. It is "light" and "sweet". Refineries set up for it would need extensive modifications to deal with other crudes.

* CBS News last night had the shuttle launch near the end of the programme in a very short item. So much for the American Spirit feechewer. Maybe they have found out everything to be found out up there.

0 Replies

Tunesia, Egyt and now Yemen: a domino effect in the Middle East?

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