"FREEDOM ONLY KNOCKS ONCE"
WORRY IN LIBYA; ‘FREEDOM ONLY KNOCKS ONCE’
In Eastern Libya, Opponents of Gadhafi Taste Freedom, and Fear Losing It
By NICK SCHIFRIN/ABC News
TOBRUK, LIBYA, March 15, 2011
One month after the revolution in Libya began, 15-year-old Fatma Kader’s elation has turned to tears. She is wracked with worry that forces loyal to Col. Muammar Gadhafi are marching deeper into eastern Libya and won’t be stopped. “Where’s Obama?” she asks, so overcome with emotion she can barely speak. “They keep using this opportunity to kill us.”
(…)
Abdul Kader — 15-year-old Fatma’s father — says the city of nearly one million has been transformed “like magic” since the revolution, with people free of fear. Where people were willing to litter before, they now help sweep the public square.
Where there was apathy toward the rest of the world, there is now sympathy for victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Where there was terror of being picked up by one of Gadhafi’s police, there is now pride in free expression.
(…)
Osama Bensadik alternates between inspiration and despair when he speaks of his oldest son Muhannad, shot on the front lines over the weekend. He says he has received calls from people in the capital Tripoli who describe how Muhannad’s story has inspired them to fight. The 21-year-old Muhannad, a U.S. citizen, could have evacuated Benghazi, but chose to stay.
“Normally the father is the example of the son. But he became my example,” Bensadik said today. “Gadhafi could bombard us from the sea and could use his planes to bomb us. That will not make any difference. He will never be our leader again. Never. Our children who have died in this revolution – in Zawaiyah, in Misrata, in the mountains, in Benghazi… have not died in vain. Let him hit us. Let him kill us all. The people’s hearts are changed.”
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Read the full story here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/worry-libya-freedom-knocks-door/story?id=13140123&page=3
Daphne, your blog has exposed so many emotions from your commentators–from frustration and anger to smugness (guess who). As the Libyan freedom fighters are slaughtered, the ‘politically correct’ world pussyfoots and wring their hands.
All this when one fighter jet could go in and take the monster out. Would love to be that pilot. F**k the consequences. Guess I’m frustrated.
So first i was a SAD” man, now you say you are “FRUSTRATED” not good at all. By the way ,if you decide to take one of the mirage planes and bomb the monster,please take note of the many buisness investments, we have there, and try not to hit any of them.
“please take note of the many buisness investments, we have there, and try not to hit any of them.”
Do you think Gadaffi will?
Could you give me the coordinates of your company’s office in Tripoli?
Silvio, I assume the ‘canny’ Maltese have their investments hedged and well insured. However, I will look for the Maltese Cross on the roof tops of their hotels and attempt to avoid any collateral damage.
BTW, was told today that ‘frustrated is good’, ‘sad’ is bad.
Yeah right, the most important thing is the business assets ‘we’ have. Never mind the people that are being killed – they aren’t Maltese after all so they don’t matter.
I despair to think that people can even think in this way – or perhaps they are not thinking at all.
If the west is not going to take action now, what will it do when Gaddafi is back in power. He will obviously hate their guts especially after all that has been said.
He will hate our guts especially after the various incidents and positions taken in the past few weeks. He is already saying he will only trade with those who stood by him. Why were so many words said and now everyone seems to be backtracking? When Gaddafi’s home problems are solved he will turn to the international ones.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jF5y69Bz3gFEfmlkSDNuQAPqGE7w?docId=CNG.e314ba0dc0a9061349e6fe1072be714a.131
Arab states would aid Libya military op: France FM
(AFP) – 1 hour ago
What will happen if – or when – Gaddafi re-establishes himself? I don’t think he’s going to start sending invitations to a “let bygones be bygones” party.
Where will that leave all the countries who’ve been talking the talk but hardly crawling the walk? (Not to mention the rebels who will be definitely rounded up and tortured, then killed)
If an offensive – or no fly zone – has to be launched I don’t think there can be any more dilly dallying. Everybody stands to lose if things are allowed to take their course.
I HAVE A DREAM: anti-Gaddafi forces win and form a new government in Libya. The first action they take is putting KMB and John Dalli on the “persona non grata” list.
No problem. We’re all dancing to ” Bieb, Bieb, Dar, dar, Zenga Zenga”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBY-0n4esNY
As they say, “Don’t talk the talk unless you can walk the walk.” This applies to the pusillanimous West.
Obviously, armed only with courage, the Libyan people have marched the march, to their great disapointment in the West. My disillusionment with certain politicians has reached a new high–and I voted for Obama.
I’m at a loss for words. What can one say when people are fighting for their freedom and the powers that be hold talks and never come up with a decision to help them.
I feel so sad and helpless and frustrated. It seems that history does repeat itself and human kind seems unable to garner the wisdom to reverse history and act boldly to stop preventable massacres.
The mad colonel will be ousted. Just remember that the uprising is only three weeks old.
Gaddafi’s days are numbered.
I share the same view. People want action here and now, when there is more to it. But the Libyans will be vindicated. And the best possible outcome is when the henchman is put to his land’s justice.
“People want action here and now, when there is more to it”.
The catch phrase is: there is more to it.
I am hoping that there is a definite plan in place and that US forces will act when most of Gaddafi’s elite army leaves Tripoli in order to attack Benghazi.
I hope that my brain is in sync with my heart.
In any case, going by the West’s inaction thus far, I decided not to hold my breath.
It seems that the time has come for the Arab regimes to demonstrate regionally and internationally the will and courage to act, demonstrated by many of their own citizens domestically. Otherwise, they run the risk, in what is supposed to be a transforming Middle East, that when the last Libyan rebel lies bleeding in the desert, the boot of a pro-Gaddafi thug upon his neck, his last gasp will be: “Where are the Arabs?”
The world is indeed cruel.
Libya – a state of terror
How Gaddafi uses terror to control Libyan people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UodjAs8mEPs
I think that now there is no way back.
Gaddafi will eventually defeat the opposition, the revolutionaries. The revolution will sadly fade away in the coming days. I can’t accept the fact that not one country from the Arab world, from Europe and the rest of the world did anything to topple Gaddafi.
It will soon be over…unless a powerful military intervention takes place.
Why did the revolutionaries refuse military help, such as ground troops?
If the Americans don’t do it…no-one does. Any doubts?
Where are the Libyan protesters who were seen in Attard some days ago?
If the world thinks that Gaddafi is bad, just wait until his son takes over.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110316/opinion/the-immorality-of-neutrality
‘The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.’
Definitely not my words, but Albert Einstein’s.
And I forgot who said: ‘There by the grace of God go I’. I think it was some Frenchman during the French Revolution.
[Daphne – http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/there-but-for-the-grace-of-god.html ]
“All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
Once this is over, as it will be soon, Europe might as well brace itself for Gaddafi-sponsored terrorist attacks and boatloads of irregular immigrants in retaliation.
It is probably a cruel thing to say but there would be a ‘positive’ side to such terrorist attacks – it would get the US to do something about it, just as they have done previously, except that this time they wouldn’t necessarily bungle it.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Libyan-Solidarity-Movement-in-Malta/205992856081570?ref=ts
I would really like to know what is keeping the rest of the world from taking action. There is no turning back now
I think it is simply that when ‘the rest of the world’ does something about such things it gets hammered by the rest of the rest of the world. Which is of course exactly what will happen even if they don’t.