Gaddafi has begun to bomb the east
While Muammar Gaddafi – and he has definitely had a facelift, a not insignificant detail because it shows what kind of man he is – spoke to an audience of ashen-faced men and slogan-chanting women this morning, his forces began bombing towns in the rebel-held east.
They have already retaken one oil facility.
The newly free east doesn’t stand a chance against airborne bombing, which is why its emergent leaders have repeatedly asked for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya.
I think we forget that the man is, above all, a military strategist and consummate chess-player. His madness is not the madness of a straitjacketed lunatic, but the detachment from normality of a psychopath. He remains capable of planning.
He has let things come this far, allowing people to think he is going down. And now he is going to snap back with all that is left of his might.
First some bombing raids. Then some mass public executions. And then what?
Meanwhile various European and US leaders emerge sporadically into the international news to say he must go at once and that he is finished.
But who’s going to make him go?
So we have two US warships edging up through Suez. And what then?
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Commenters on timesofmalta.com can be relied on to supply answers to that question. Here’s one.
Joe Borg
It seems to me that most maltese are still in dreamland. Its time to wake up and see the big picture. Do we realise the implications of imposing a no fly-zone. The US has already said, that it would imply a bombing campaign to destroy surface to air missile sites. Have we forgot what has already happened to Iraq and Afghanistan ?! We know what the US is “really” interested in – use your imagination! We also know how trigger happy the US forces can be. Stray missiles that can injure and kill innocent people, including maltese (for those of you who only care about themselves!!). Further more, Malta will be used as a military base like in WW2. This would bring misery to Malta and surrounding countries. I am all for using Malta to help people, but not to be used as a base to arm planes with deadly weaponry.
Right now, we should all join together and speak with one voice instead of squabling about petty issues. I hope this comment will be followed by a healthy debate. Peace be on you all.
No one seems to have linked this, so here it is, much more factual than tat-Times and a great headline too:
Malta ‘will not act as a military base’ – Gonzi
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=121145
Kev,
Could you please indicate where it quotes the PM saying that? The only place I can see that phrase is in the heading of the article without it being attributed to anyone.
I have read through what the PM actually said and I see no categoric statement that Malta would not be used as a military base, only that we have not yet been asked, what our priorities are and such.
It would be a real shame if the UN mandated military action and we were to refuse to co-operate (assuming that someone actually needed us to co-operate).
I see it unlikley (though admittedly not impossible) that Gozni would have made such a statement, failing to consider the possible consequences.
People power cannot remove mad tyrants like Gaddafi, Kim Jong il, Ahmadinejad, Lukashenko and others of their ilk. These people do all they can to be prepared to combat any challenge to their power and they are not going to hold back from killing thousands of people if that is what it takes. After all Saddam was only removed because of the invasion.
Gaddafi is more than able to re-take Libya under his control. Who is going to stop him, a rag-tag army partly armed with ancient weapons? It was clear from the start that Gaddafi would be able to resist any attempt to remove him and unless there is foreign intervention his hold on Libya is likely to be restored.
Malta should give Gaddafi asylum – another solution from timesofmalta.com
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110302/local/gaddafi-appears-on-libyan-state-tv-says-power-is-in-the-hands-of-the-people
Michel Bencini
What is all this anti Gaddafi rhetoric all of a sudden? Something is wrong in this picture. As far as I can recall, no one in Malta has bitched about him, at least publicly. Quite the contrary. He has been accorded warm welcome on the island for decades and everybody knows this. All of a sudden he is a tyrant and a dictator. I am not condoning the suppression of liberty in the human being. However I find it somewhat hypocritical that all of a sudden, the whole world wants his head. Don’t you think it is a little bit too late to suddenly realize that he is some kind of a bad guy? What is this holier than thou attitude? I think that Malta should give him asylum if he needs it, the least thing the Maltese can do after hugging him at every conceivable opportunity. Where is our Christianity? Left at the convenient doorstep after mass is over? Sorry guys, but really!
Where is Ronald Reagan?
He’s finally met the Gipper.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2056006,00.html
Among the mercenaries: portrait of a Gaddafi soldier.
Just for the record:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/africa/03military.html?_r=2
I think Hilary Clinton spoke too soon about a military intervention. The American public, barring of course the Republicans who go on regular Tea Parties, has no interest in getting involved in yet another desert war. Neither do most countries, NATO or UN.
[Daphne – Desert war, Albert? We’re talking about Tripoli. I don’t expect a truck driver in Minneapolis to know the geography of Libya, or even where it is (all Americans think it’s the Middle East) but coming from you?]
Albert Farrugia, a substantial faction of the Tea Party Movement are vehemently anti-war. These in fact form part of the grassroots movement that gave rise to the original Tea Party movement, which was organic and which sprouted with the Ron Paul Money Bomb campaign culminating on 16.12.2007 (Boston Tea Party).
Since then, of course, the movement has been taken over by the GOP establishment and laregly mediocritised, chipping away the anti-war aspect in the process.
Minor correction, the Tea Party has been taken over by Kock brothers, the GOP is the political appendage of their extreme libertarian policies.
@Joseph A Borg – The Koch brothers are just a blip in the GOP establishment. The wide-ranging Tea Party movement cannot be described as ‘extreme libertarian’ – whatever that may mean to you and others who usually have a rather distorted image of what libertarianism stands for, let alone how it works for the benefit of all.
I say this, because what today passes for a ‘free market’ is in fact a market managed by state-propped dinosaur corporations that continue to operate their monopolitstic cartels only because big government has had enough clout to legislate their budding competitors out of the way.
So what they call ‘capitalism’ is in fact State-sponsored corporatism a la Mussolini, which brings us to ‘corporate fascism’. This explains why today’s sandled revolutionaries are clamouring for (more) socialism, which is what the corporate elite want since socialism means bigger government by which to stave off more market competition and render what they call ‘the masses’ into highly dependent organisms at the mercy of the state and the global corporations.
kev, I agree with you that there is an element of corporate intrusion in government and vice versa that is clogging the state machinery. After all old western power families are still enamoured with the fascist experiment. Some overt, like Mdm L’Oreal, Bush family others less so. A compromise that lets them keep their fortunes without having to fight the people and their pesky revolutions. Adam Smith, Franklin, Paine and others expected progressive taxation, democracy and a representative government would have equalised the fortunes of citizens and spread the wealth around after some generations. Hasn’t happened.
I don’t agree with the libertarian view that when something fails you simply cut it off and throw it in the fire without any consideration as to how this action affects citizens. By extreme libertarian I am thinking of a very small toothless government that cannot control the large corporations. Weak governments are a problem. It’s not the size, but how much the citizens are involved in the governing process. I sort of like Ron Paul, even though he’s a young earther, especially since he wants to sanitise the deficit by reducing the pentagon’s budget. I much prefer democrats like Barney Frank though for a way forward.
Libertarians never tell us how their plan can control mischievous growth and power grabs by individuals outside government. They always use the excuse: the markets will decide. I’d hate us to become a feudal conglomeration with a figurehead elected by the people to keep the sham of a democracy. That’s Russia post Gorbachev thanks to libertarian policies instituted by American advisors or feudal japan with the emperor as figurehead.
I have similar inclinations to yours in fancying less intrusive government but lean towards anarchic principles: right to property is a sort-of necessary state fiction. You have to admit though that there’s a limit to what can be really achieved when a few are intent on gaming the system for their benefit – no matter what the negative effect may be on others.
Socialism at least has it’s values squarely where they count: it’s of the people and for the people. Not the local flavour though it has a totalitarian bent common with old ideologists that it hasn’t shed of yet.
When are sane labourites going to take their party back?
Gaddafi is our true friend so we should stay out of it – from timesofmalta.com
Mario Saliba
It seems that Gaddafi’s offensive to re-capture the territory taken over by the rebels has started. I think in a few days or weeks he will be back in control of Libya and therefore Malta should be prepared for this. Al Jazeera and other TV channels have said a lot of lies about what is happening in Libya. Proof of this is the many Maltese people interviewed on TV when they came bask saying that they saw nothing of the killings and bombings. Foreign journalists are now in Tripoli and they have also reported nothing of the the alleged killings. Gaddafi still controls the capital, the airport, the port and the border crossing. Soon he will control all of Libya again. You can see how confident he and his sons are when they are interviewed. So we really should not get involved. After all we are neutral and non-aligned and Gaddafi has always been a true friend to us. We need to protect Maltese investments and to have Maltese working there again soon.
There’s no other way of saying it: F’GHOXX L-INVESTMENTS.
They’ve been nothing but trouble.
Is this Mario Saliba joking or what?
No.
What are the odds that “Mario Saliba” votes PL?
Mario Saliba: “We need to protect Maltese investments and to have Maltese working there again soon.”
In other words, “L.ewwel jien, u Alla sidi”. The greater the number of Libyans exterminated, the better the job prospects for Maltese in Libya, eh?
Gaddafi will not be impressed by a couple of impressive but impotent US warships, a British frigate and a Canadian warship just leaving today and reaching Libyan waters a week too late.
Impotent US warships because in the absence of a NATO resolution authorizing a no-fly zone in Libya, it is just another waste of money and time tactic which plays directly into Gaddafi’s bloody hands.
The new Council just formed in Benghazi, should immediately seek international recognition and swallow some pride and ASK for international help in any form including treading on Libyan soil for as long as it takes to rid the country of a menace who has ruled them for 42 years.
Enough is enough and the time has come when the rest of the world proves that it stands four square behind the Libyan people and not behind a two bit tyrant who robbed his own people of basic rights while he lined his pockets with billions off the backs of workers earning the princely sum of $2.00 a day!
Beware of what to believe. The BBC, for example, is in full-blown Pravda mode and they’re good, believe me they are the best propaganda machine the world has ever seen.
Here’s a take from Russia Today:
Airstrikes in Libya did not take place – Russian military
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TncgsS0FDWg
I see. BBC is in full-blown Pravda mode.
And Russia Today is not.
Al Jazeera showed footage of a fighter bombing around a town.
On the other hand, according to Mardell, the US is not too keen on the no-fly-zone
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2011/03/camerons_no-fly_zone_fervour_n.html
Since when is the Russian Military more credible than the BBC?
My God kev, stay off Gaddafi’s Nescafe.
Maybe Kev is just questioning the credibility of Gaddafi’s statement that “all his people love him” which was broadcast by the BBC.
But Gaddafi also said that his people would die for him, and I thought this, even if not necessarily credible, should be taken seriously. I translate it from Gaddafi’s language (English in this case) that it means that he will make them die for him.
Kevvy, your eloquent effluent appears to indicate that you suffer from chronic constipation.
Kev, you are something else. I recommend a herbal solution mate…. SJW.
Mariam Al Batool School in Paola is in financial difficulties because the transfer of funds to help the school, from Libya to Malta, has stopped. Funds which by right belong to the Libyan people not to the Libyan dictator. Any donations from anyone are welcome.
I believe that the Maltese state schools will be more than happy to welcome the students of the mentioned school.
Here, I mean Italy, is a true fact that people coming from certain nations do not want to mix up with the rest of the citizens. They prefer to stay in their own communities.
Then it depends on the situations. They have to send children to the state schools if there are no other options. Foreigners coming to Europe, ingenerally speaking they consider Europe as the place which is giving them a living and maybe a better financial future for their family and a good education for their children but that’s it.
The fact that they learn the respective languages is a must. The children at school behave like the rest of the class, but at home they should behave in accordance to their parents’ cultures.
Integrate with the other Maltese children. During religion classes if there are still any they go and read the Koran or have their own video conference/lesson. They can also stay on if they want to.
You’re the one who said he was finished, Daphne. I say it’s far too early to make such a catagoric statement.
[Daphne – He is finished, Tim. He no longer has international recognition as a head of state. His survival from here on in will be as a pariah. But what follows is going to be terrible.]
His power bases, Tripoli and Sirte haven’t been challenged whilst rebel-held territory is being re-captured by pro-Gaddafi forces. Military intervention is unlikely. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Gaddafi surviving.
I’m scouring the news sites. Seems like Gaddafi still controls export oil terminals. If he still manages to export oil, that would only mean that somebody’s buying.
I think Saddam was still controlling his oil terminals, and Baghdad too, when a full war was unfolding in Iraq. But he was doomed.
But in Saddam’s case, the US and UK dumped their military at the borders and crawled in with full air support.
In this case it is doubtful, and hopefully will not happen.
If the UK gets cocky to protect its oil contract on behalf of BP then we might witness a backlash from neighbouring countries against the UK and maybe the west as well.
[Daphne – Oh please don’t start that boring twittering about oil. The minute somebody is willing to stick his neck out, the shout goes up: oil! I see it as the equivalent of what goes on at the micro-level: if she writes this blog, then she must be paid by the PN.]
I’m not averse to intervention, the problem is that ‘the west’ has a credibility problem with the Arab world and there could be a fundamentalist backlash.
A hundred years ago, the Ottoman Empire was taking its last gasps and the European powers stood like vultures at its borders, trying to nab tasty morsels.
Lloyd George encouraged the Greeks to retake Anatolia and the backlash was immediate and catastrophic.
Even though the rebels have congealed into a machine with a single purpose, there are still the far right muslim fundies who are being silent. If we give them fuel for their (sometimes justified) hate towards the west, the mindless majority will follow them, not the more liberal factions.
He managed to divide people and rule. He gave the arms to his loyalists to attack the protesters (ergo he is not ordering mercenaries to kill his own people). Nimmaginali mhu se jigri xejn u jibqa` hemm ghax nobody is capable to remove him.
Not easy situation, when the Libyan rebels themselves seem to be against foreign military intervention.
On the contrary, easy peasy poo.
Contact a few Russian and Ukrainian arms dealers and buy a shedload of AK47s, RPGs, antitank mines, AA artillery and anything that can be used against armour or helicopters, and which can be carried in crates, plus a mountain of ammo.
Then you organise a few flights into Libya under the guise of “humanitarian assistance”, getting the world to believe you’re delivering baby food.
You arm the rebels to the gills, promise them diplomatic recognition and economic reconstruction if they get Gaddafi within a week, then you sit back and watch.
If you want to put icing on the cake you send a few French advisors, ostensibly as medics or journalists, to assist the rebels.
And Bob’s your uncle. Come to think of it, I might take the next flight to Tripoli and start a Maltese Legion of Volunteers to help topple Gaddafi. It would be a glorious way to die.
While we must admire the insistence by protesting Libyans to be allowed to carry out the fight for their freedom without outside assistance, that is a Utopian dream considering that they are dealing with a merciless tyrant, armed to the teeth and having no hesitation to use his jet fighters and artillery and to bring in mercenaries to slaughter his own brave but inadequately armed people.
Even the declaration of a “flight free zone” would require the prior neutralisation of Gaddafi’s anti-aircraft defences. The West is doing its best under the circumstances, but we must be realistic – that cannot be enough.
This not the time for the protesting Libyans to show misplaced pride or to listen to the siren voices of vipers whispering that the West is after Libya’s oil!
Apparently it is not the rats, cocroaches and teenagers on spiked Nescafe that have been causing inconvenience to our neighbour after all. It has been the ex Guantanamo bay detainees all along.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/02/sot.gadhafi.gitmo.cnn?hpt=T1
Yes. Using Gaddafi’s logic, America should join Libya in the fight against the rebels. It’s the common enemy: Al Qaida.
There is no way the west will let Gaddafi stay in power now that they have condemned him in public.
The no-fly zone will be implemented as soon as everything is in place.
Let us not forget that the US military is the only force that can implement such operation.
It will start with the elimination of Gaddafi’s anti-aircraft units all over Libya, all early-warning systems such as radars will be destroyed.
After all of these threats are eliminated the joint effort of both NATO and US air power will patrol this no-fly area 24/7. This would leave the Colonel more isolated than he already is.
Anything that poses a threat to any of the patroling aircraft will be destroyed without hesitation. All this will happen as soon as all inteligence is gathered and evaluated and then we’ll see how brave the colonel is.
What are we going to do about it, Troy? Will you join me in fighting alongside the rebels? I’m serious. Airmalta is still flying to Tripoli.
Count me in. Haven’t had any fun since Vietnam.
Harry, you have a wife and children, if not grandchildren. Back in the 90s, when the Balkans were going up in flames, and foreign volunteers were fighting with forces like the Croatians, I was too young, and I had my whole life before me.
Now I’m thirty, with no family, no children, and no career prospects. I’ll probably be the idiot who steps on a mine or gets captured by Islamists and is beheaded with a rusty saw. But it’s better than waiting for death with sending job applications.
Baxxter, wife died 22 years ago. Never remarried; no one good enough. Got kids and grandkids, all doing well. On my own now, as you seem to be.
Think you’re too hard on yourself. Your words and intelligence are apparent in your comments. I’ve been in the wars. Think you’d do just OK.
Dear Michael Bencini
Our Christianity is not “left in any convenient doorstep after mass is over”. Our Christianity is practised when we oppose by every legitimate means the Islamisation of Europe being pushed by this merciless tyrant who does not hesitate to use heavy weaponry to murder his own people. Commercial interests do not justify that Europe continues to look away and still less would we be justified to grant him any asylum in Malta. At the very least Gaddafi should be made to answer for his genocidal suppression of his own people in an international court of justice
Shame France is dragging its feet on a unilateral military intervention in Libya against the Gaddafi regime. Alain Juppe and his predecessor were not of the same opinion when France had supported Chad against Gaddafi with military intervention which lead to repeated defeats and severe losses to the Libyan army.
France knows very well that the Libyan army is not a strong or capable one and can be easily defeated by France alone.
This isn’t about whether there’s enough military strength to defeat his army, by one country or another. The recalcitrance is more due to the political fallout from within the Arab world if the West were to intervene.
No one wants THAT flak.
“…France is dragging its feet…”
Strange you mention “feet” when Rama Yade spoke of a “doormat”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-501051/Five-planes-camel-tent-30-female-virgin-bodyguards–Libyan-leader-Gaddafi-arrives-Paris-entourage.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1693121,00.html
Have you listened to Malta Today’s latest advert on Bay radio?
It’s something to this tune: “Do you want to read about PN? Buy Mument. PL? Buy Kulhadd. Want to read Classifieds? Buy Sunday Times. Want to read the Weather Report? Buy the Independent. Want to read real news? Buy Malta Today.
I find it to be classless and I wonder, is it legal?
Yes it is. It’s called comparative advertising. So long as what is being said is the truth, then the EU Directive on Misleading and Comparative Advertising (97/55/EC of the 6/10/97) backs it.
Note that in that advert what is said about the COMPETING newspapers is all fact. Whether what is said about Malta Today is true or not is irrelevant irrespective of the tacit implication.
Yeah I heard it. Think it is legal.
So is this:
“Do you want to read about PN? Buy Mument. PL? Buy Kulhadd. Want to read Classifieds? Buy Sunday Times. Want to read the Weather Report? Buy the Independent. Want to buy cheap toilet paper? Buy Malta Today.
The situation in Malta is gradually crystalising: PL supporters are coming out in favour of Gaddafi, PN ones against him.
Dear Mr Vella,
You continue to convince me that the PN, in its determination to stick to power at all costs, is fomenting as much as it can tensions and divisions within Maltese society.
[Daphne – No Albert, it’s Al Qaeda, the fashionable people to blame.]
A far, far, cry from the “rikonciljazzjoni nazzjonali” promised in the 80s and which had convinced and attracted so many.
Now, the PN uses every single available opportunity to sow hatred and division with Maltese society because it somehow feels that only by doing that can it maintain its hold on power.
This is a very grave and historic responsibility the PN is taking on its shoulders.
Take the EU. The LP practically swallowed all that it was saying for some 15 years and came round to accept EU membership.
[Daphne – Sorry to butt in, but just in case your interlocutor doesn’t ask this himself: please quote chapter and verse when saying that the Labour Party has accepted EU membership. I don’t remember reading anything, except a brief reference to something Muscat said, pretty much along the lines of well, now Malta is in the EU and we have to accept it. And his shadow foreign minister practically gags when he has to mention the name. That’s obvious: it’s hard to go from ‘Allahares nidhlu fl-Ewropa’ to acceptance. The word you’re looking for is resignation not acceptance. The Labour Party has resigned itself to the fact of EU membership.]
Yet, does the PN at least recognise this, and congratulates the LP that there is now one united front? Of course not!
Now this Libya thing. Gaddafi and his millions have been serenaded for decades by all sides of the political divide. Last year he was supposed to have come on a state visit to Malta, which never materialised. Only 3 weeks ago, our prime minister invited him again.
So, please DO NOT use these tragic events to sow hatred within Malta itself. Just to protect the few hundred votes which keep the PN in government.
[Daphne – It’s very tiring, Albert, the way the Labour Party and its supporters consistently describe valid and accurate criticism of its excesses as ‘sowing hatred’. To paraphrase a witness in a notorious case of politicians and prostitutes: they would say that, wouldn’t they?]
This is why as a Maltese citizen I am scandalised by the way the government is instrumentalising these events to gain political mileage, when it could easily act in such a way as to rope in the efforts of all the Maltese in a job which is being well done.
[Daphne – What exactly do you mean by all the Maltese? Do you mean he should let Joseph play too? Il-vera kaz. He’s the prime minister, Albert. His constitutional role is completely different to that of the leader of the opposition. They each have clear and distinct roles and they should stick to them. I don’t see the Labour Party clamouring to share the flak and hassle of utility bills. No, it only clamours to get in on this particular act for reasons that are best left unexamined. If Joseph, Anglu and Toni want praise, tell them that volunteers are required to collect food and sort it out. I’m not joking. You might wish to help too.]
Daphne, why do people like this continue to piss into the wind. Guess he’s not a sailor.
Sorry Daphne, got so ‘pissed off’ couldn’t spell correctly. Also forgot the question mark! Jeez these people are maddening and incorrigible.
Yes, Dr Gonzi is the prime minister, and he is doing his job. So why hammering each time and again “What is Joseph doing?
What is Joseph saying..?”
Dr Muscat is Leader of the Opposition. He has expressed support for the government’s actions, and also thanked the government for keeping the opposition abreast of developments.
[Daphne – Albert, we ask because we have been told that he is collaborating with the prime minister. We ask because he cancelled his Sunday morning political meeting and told us that it was because of the Libyan crisis, so we imagined that he was, perhaps, disarming the Mirage jets. But now I see you have finally understood that he is merely being kept abreast of developments. So now we have to ask: why did he cancel his Sunday morning political meeting? I guess it was because he couldn’t be arsed to do it, felt like staying in bed with the newspapers, and thought it would be a good excuse.]
PL supporters are the latest version of MLP supporters that has always been enthusiastic supporters of Gaddafi, through thick and thin – the only short lived exception being the oil rig incident. The rest of Malta and the West were, at best, “ibusu id Gaddafi li f’qalbhom kienu jixtiequ jaraw maqtugha” (translated: kissing Gaddafi’s hand when in their heart of hearts, they actually prefered to see it amputated)
BBC is reporting that “the Arab League is considering imposing a no-fly zone in coordination with the African Union.” I doubt they can pull it off without NATO’s AEW assets.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12626496
Frankly, I am surprised they possess that many pilots and serviceable aircraft.
Will the Arab League be a new player in the game or is this a settling of old scores?
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Libya-Arab-League-Warns-It-Could-Impose-No-Fly-Zone-To-Protect-The-Libyan-People/Article/201103115943885?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15943885_Libya%3A_Arab_League_Warns_It_Could_Impose_No-Fly_Zone_To_Protect_The_Libyan_People
Very interesting points have been made by many contributors.
In reality, at this stage, everyone is utterly irrelevant, including the mad murderous rais.
It is only the nice tall guy from Honolulu who matters.
He will decide, in a couple of weeks’ time, when his chiefs of staff tell him that everything is in place.
He will decide whether regime change in Libya, at this moment in time, is in the national interest of the United States of America. He might even consider Lockerbie and paying back the prime mover of that holocaust.
Whatever the considerations are, he will decide. After all he is the commander-in-chief.
He will consider whether to neutralise the colonel or not.
If he decides to go for it he can conclude in a week, that is five working days. On the sabbath he will fly to Camp David to unwind together with Bo. He will give us all the customary wave on his way to Airforce 2.
In my humble opinion this is what the current upheaval in this neighbouring country will boil down to.
How Saif Al-Islam hoodwinked the West
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-02/saif-al-islam-gaddafi-the-sham-of-gaddafis-son/?cid=hp:mainpromo1
Libya: Who is propping up Gaddafi ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12558066
Shame on the Libyan army. Is this the best they can do 14 days after the uprising started?
They are not even capable of putting up a proper fight against a poorly armed rebel resistance let alone quelling the uprising. Imagine what they will be up to if they had to fight against a proper army.
It is unbelievable when one thinks that the rebels are still recruiting fighters and they already control half of Libya.
You’re getting confused Village….Ghaddafi’s forces are NOT the Libyan army.
Malta ‘will not act as a military base’ — Prime Minister Gonzi.
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=121145
This makes no sense. If a military base is needed it’s for humanitarian reasons, to prevent more deaths from happening. It’s not like other countries are planning to “conquer” Libya. I’m ashamed to see our government not willing to risk a pinky to save others from losing their lives.
I love free trade:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/complete-list-which-countries-sold-weapons-libya
And anti-money laundering rules:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-did-gaddafi-bypass-us-anti-money-laundering-rules-bank-goldman-and-jpmorgan
now move on, nothing to see here.
To all the pessimists and nay-sayers out there: Henry Frendo’s opinion:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110302/opinion/there-is-a-future-for-libya
Somebody has a cunning plan:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110302/local/libyan-mirages-being-disarmed
“S.Agius
Good… but now send those planes back as quickly as possible !!!!! We ‘ve already did more than was expected of us. The less we’re involved the better.”
We have been having daily updates of Maltese workmEn being plucked to safety and returned home. I believe the last count is of 267. Where are the thousnds of Maltese workers who earn their living in Libya and who will be doomed together with ther families? Is there a mis-count somewhere?
(Daphne – That struck me as odd, too.)
They don’t just earn their living. They earn their daily bread (“hobzhom”). Small but crucial semantic detail which reveals loads.
I think there are more people working in Brussels/Strasbourg/Luxembourg.
Could they have been factoring in facories and service industries located here in Malta whose output (part or all) is targeted at the Libyan market?
Any comments re Joseph Muscat on Dissett?
[Daphne – I can’t comment because I haven’t watched it yet.)
Labour might well be hoping that Gaddafi will survive. Then they can blow another wad of euros that might have come from him, celebrating his 42nd year of tyranny. Watch for another maratona on One TV coming soon.
Perhaps they’ll throw a party with Beyonce, invite him over and then some prominent person who refuses to reveal the amount spent due to client secrecy, will write another cheque on top of the $185,000 one drawn on a Maltese bank some time ago.
Forgive me for asking but can a no-fly zone be imposed in somebody else’s airspace? Always thought that the aispace above a country’s territory is controlled and administered by that country alone.
[Daphne – I’ll leave this to Baxxter. He’ll have a great time replying, and I promise to delete the insults. But just to get started: the whole point of a no-fly zone is that it IS on another country’s airspace. Otherwise, what would it be for?]
Hello. No insults, since Peter Borg posed a genuine question, not some smartarse wanktellectual comment dressed up in legal bullshit. Woops, the insults!
The airspace is almost always controlled and administered by the country. In some rare cases, such as when a country has no capabilities of its own, it is not (think of the European microstates).
In some cases, it isn’t defended by the country itself, but by an ally. This usually happens when the country has no interceptor planes of its own.
Many small NATO countries rely on someone else to plice their airspace (the Baltic countries, home of supermodels and poets, have pooled their assets, and usually rely on Poland to scramble its fighters if anything nasty happens, such as someone trying to steal Carmen Kass using a zeppelin or something.)
But I digress.
A no-fly zone imposed on a country is a three-step process.
1) You find some legal framework for the action (which is an act of war, mind, like a naval blockade).
2) You find all the available airbases around that country.
3) You start flying 24-hour, round-the-clock, day-and-night patrols over that country, shooting down a) anything that moves in the air, or b) anything military that moves in the air, or c) fixed-wing military aircraft or d) fixed and rotary wing or e) civilian aircraft used for military purposes or all of those.
Your patrols need to detect and identify every scrap of metal up there in le grand bleu, so you need radar, high up, so your horizon’s further out.
So you use AWACS planes (that’s the plane with a rotating saucer on the fuselage). But your fighters, and your AWACS planes, are going to be up there for hours, so you need tanker aircraft for aerial refuelling. Which need their own escort.
And you need to be able to destroy any threat on the ground, so you need fighters with a ground attack capability.
As you can see, step 3 is BEDEVILLED with complications. This’ll sound crude, but in 1992 and 1999, no one was overly concerned about having to shoot and kill Serbs, because the Serbs were hated by the media, and the internet/Facebook/Twitter age still hadn’t dawned.
But now, after Iraq and Afghanistan and the rebirth of the anti-war movement, there’s going to be some nasty political fallout if some poor 18-year old Libyan conscript manning an AA gun is killed.
There’s a step 4 of sorts, which is that if the enemy country doesn’t take kindly to your no-fly zone and your neighbouring airbases, and attacks them, you attack back.
There has never been a no-fly zone that wasn’t the prelude or the aftermath to a war. That’s something to think about.
Thanks Baxxter, that explains it. Have to say though that, given its invasive nature, the term no-fly zone is either a gross misnomer or diplomatic jargon for an act of war.
Baxxter, are you sure you’re thirty years old?
[Daphne – I’m surprised he hasn’t received any proposals of marriage (or propositions) via this website, quite frankly.]
I despair.
I’m not easily fazed so don’t worry about the insults.
But I suppose with my reasoning, the point would be for a country such as Libya to close its own airspace, for fear of foreign military intervention or to stop humanitarian aid.
This would render any aircraft flying over their territory as a violation and thus can be shot down, even perhaps legitimately.
[Daphne – The point of the exercise is to stop LIBYAN aircraft flying over Libya’s airspace, to stop Gaddafi bombing his own people.]
You’re dragging me into the legal stuff I hate so much. I think that what Peter means is that Libya could declare its airspace closed to ALL aircraft, including civilian flights.
That, in fact, would be illegal under the Convention on International Civil Aviation. (Not that Gaddafi has ever lost any sleep over doing illegal stuff).
In fact, humanitarian flights from France are flying into Libya this very minute to ferry out the refugees stranded at the border, and there haven’t been any complaints from Libya.
Has anyone been successful shooting down a few dozen Cruise missiles which can render airfields, radar stations and other military installations to a heap of rubble in a matter of minutes?
Remember the invasion of Iraq (the first time) when it invaded Kuwait?
Iraq’s air capabilities was history before they even figured out what hit them! What was left was decimated the moment they tried to take to the air.
Cruise missiles are no good for taking out mobile anti aircraft missile launchers. You need planes with specialised equipment.
You would not want to use cruise missiles anyway in this particular situation – sophisticated as they are a few of them will still go off course and land on a school or something.
In Libya you would want to keep to an absolute minimum the attacks on ground targets and the only such targets that need to be destroyed are those which can endanger the aircarft enforcing the no fly zone. The only such targets are the missile batteries, of which all of Libya’s are mobile.
Most commonly these are taken out by missiles which are designed to home in on the illuminator or tracking radars. They will not necessarily destroy the missile launchers (which are on separate vehicles some distance away) but the missiles are rendered almost useless without their radars, at least against modern military aircraft.
Gaddafi is not fooling anyone – he has declared his intention of committing his country (which he said he loves so much) to indescribable pain and suffering.