And do what, exactly?

Offer MIA as a base?

Where do we offer as a support/maintemamce/ammunition (bombs) storage? Lufthansa Tech or SR tech?

Interrupt incoming civil and commercial aviation while fighters land and take off?

What impact would that have on the overall coalition operations except for a few saved flying minutes?

How can we offer facilities which we do not have?

What advantage would Malta gain with any emerging Libyan government(s) especially if Gaddafi prevails and continues to lead one half of Libya?

What would you say if the PM offered Malta as a base and it backfired on us with dire results? L-ewwel qatilna bil-guh u issa kissirna?

With doubts and uncertainties amongst the coalition countries themselves, why implicate Malta with all the pitfalls this would entail?

I am more troubled by the fact that Gaddafi has mustard gas and thus far there is no mention of this weapon (WMD) has been neutralized and can be used, given the right opportunity, by Gaddafi on his own civil population.

Please note that nowhere have I used the words ‘neutrality clause’ anywhere because my points I consider valid whether the Malta Constitution has that clause or not.

Why can we not thank our lucky stars that we had choices and hopefully we opted for the right one?

Now I know why they never built an airstrip in Gozo: to have an excuse that we only have one airport. I am sorry to have to point this out, but for anyone to claim he or she is part of the human race, he or she must be ready to share the trials and tribulations of this world too.

Don’t even begin to think that when this is all over it’s back to business where we left off in Tripoli.

George, are you from Gozo or from Greece?

Libyans can be treated in Libya if they have access to the necessary facilities and supplies.

So far, the news in that respect is negative. Medical staff and ambulances have been fired on, Red Crescent staff have not been allowed to reach areas of fighting, Medicins San Frontieres decided to retreat to the Egyptian border, hospitals run out of supplies, doctors have to deal with horrific injuries using basic only equipment and supplies.

So Malta’s commitment to humanitarian support is effectively just so much hogwash, particularly when any related discussion centres on how ‘we’ deserve ‘the EU’s’ help when coping with an as yet hypothetical refugee crisis. The real refugee crisis is on the borders with Tunisia and Egypt, and inside Libya where people are unable to escape.

All this fussing and fretting about air strikes by Gaddafi is just a sop.

I cannot recall an instance when Libyan planes were used to attack Europe, but I can recall many instances when Libyan terrorism wreaked havoc outside Libya.

Gaddafi’s threatened terrorist activity against all sea and air traffic in the Mediterranean. This is entirely in keeping with his history as an actor in and sponsor of terrorism. His son, Saif al-Islam, admitted as much in a 2006 interview with New Yorker magazine.

What’s to stop him doing that now?

I am also not entirely happy with the observations and the stand taken by the both by the PM and the deputy PM.

However, I do not agree that “Nationalist Party (through the government) has placed itself squarely at the level of Labour in respect of Muammar Gaddafi. No more moral high ground”, because I heard the PM condemning the Gaddafi regime and saying that its end is inevitable.

[Daphne – He did not condemn the Gaddafi regime. He condemned ‘violence’. Saying that its end is inevitable is an observation, not a personal opinion of one’s wishes and desires. Compare the direct statements made by other national leaders with our prime minister’s, and you will see just how oblique our prime minister’s statements really are. Language is my ‘thing’ and so it is the first thing I notice.]

While no one from the opposition is even referring to this tyrant’s rule as regime. So, no I cannot agree that the PN and LP are at the same level.

That’s typical of people like you. Spineless cowards.

Nice one, Daphne. So much for the Labour accusations of being on the PN payroll. Do they still think Gonzi is paying you to say this?

Hold your horses. Just because the allies have “severely damaged” Libya’s surface-to-air defence systems doesn’t mean they have destroyed all the Libyan air force yet, have they? Some jets can evade the no-fly zone restrictions, I’m sure.

That said, it all boils down to schoolyard bullying tactics at this point. Would the Mad Dog pick on someone of his size? Of course not. There’s that helpless whimp cowering in fear in the corner over there…