I think this also proves that Al-Qaida has had about as much popular support as extremists in the West do, i.e. little to none at all. I think as many Arabs supported bin Laden as there are Americans who view Timothy McVeigh as a hero. They will always exist on the fringe, but will never claim a majority. I doubt the extremists even held a majority in Iran in 1979, but they were the most organized and the ones able to co-opt their revolution. Fortunately, that does not appear to the case today.
Same with the Bolsheviks. I doubt in the age of the smart phone and Facebook they would have succeeded, while the Mensheviks or other moderate parties may have.
I hope, but, bear in mind, both “parliamentary actions” and “civil society” are but rumors to any Libyan now living. As a commentator mentioned last night on CNN, this is not like Egypt – Gaddafi had a totalitarian revolutionary vision and he destroyed all pre-revolutionary institutions in Libyan society, except for the mosques. Everything was brought under his control. Bring down his state now, and what you have is a total vacuum of social organization or authority. No civil society, no civil service, no power-in-its-own-right business sector, no nuttin’; even the Libyan army is a ragtag joke of a pirate band compared to, say, Egypt’s. They’ll have to create all of that again from scratch.
And they will. This time, they’ll build the country they want and the nation they deserve. God knows they bled and died for it, and they’ll be damned before they let anyone else install a puppet to rule over them or before they allow any Jihadist group to tell them what to do.
With its wealth of natural resources and all its natural beauty, Libya has the potential to become a really wonderful nation - here’s hoping they don’t squander this chance.
Tonight I’m attending an Emergency Aid meeting to discuss what we can do to help the people in Libya. Seems to me that the best way of making a concrete difference right now is to cross either the border with Egypt or with Tunisia with truckloads of aid such as food, clean water, blankets, medical supplies, etc. If it turns out that they seriously need volunteers to go there and help get the aid to the people that need it - I might go.
Does anyone have any good suggestions or advice I can take along to the meeting? Has anyone had experience of providing aid relief before? Any ideas on what would be best to bring apart from my own suggestions above?
It would be obviously easiest to cross the Egyptian border as that area is in anti-government hands, but it seems to me that the people on the West, in Tripoli are the ones that are in more desperate need of aid.
Well they are off to a good start right now. Citizen committees and militias are being formed to govern the liberated areas. But I disagree there is a total vacuum. These people have worked along side foreign workers from many parts of the world. Their diplomatic corps seems to be very aware of how civil society works. I am certain there will be kinks along the road, but I think they have more experience and resources than you give them credit for. And there has been more openness since the West lifted most sanctions after he came clean about his nuclear program. Hell, how do you think they knew about the uprisings by their neighbors?
I think they will make a decent transition. The most important thing people want to do is work. I read a comment on Al-Jazeera by an architect who said he has not built anything in over a decade. When the capabilities of these people are freed, I think we will all be amazed at how vibrant a country they will create. And they will no longer suffer any person or group that tries to prevent it.
I would contact the International Red Cross/Red Crescent and coordinate activities with them. I would hope they have something in the works by now. But everything you listed in definitely needed.
Where is this meeting? Who is organizing it? I would love to contribute as well beyond IRC donations.
Wait, why would the liberated areas of Libya, even now, need “food, clean water, blankets, medical supplies”? That is, why would there be any shortage of those things? This is not a situation where war has been raging in the zone for months. People still have blankets and food at home.
Well this began a week ago. I don’t think the markets are operating as normal. How much food and water do you have in your home? I’ve read several reports of doctors asking for medical supplies - hospitals are stocked for occasional emergencies and accidents - not several hundred people being shot at once.
Blankets can serve several purposes as well besides covering yourself at night. (Covering the dead for one).
Does anyone have any information on this group? I cannot tell if it set up from Libya or if its part of the expatriate community. Good info otherwise on the site also.
We may hope. As the CNN commentators also noted, it helps immensely that Libya is so underpopulated (only 6 million, compared to 80 million in Egypt), and has Africa’s largest oil reserves. It can be a rich country, if only those resources are used to make it rich.
Yeah, very few people keep food or water for a week. I’ve started to build up a supply for 3 days of emergency food or water (based on some FEMA courses I’m taking, that is the time it could take for federal emergency people and logistics to respond to a real disaster if local EM and supply is disrupted). Most people don’t bother, but if the power goes out a lot of the stuff they have will rapidly go bad, and if the markets aren’t supplying stuff then they are going to be in bad shape (especially for clean water if there have been disruptions in the water system).
Well medical supplies for one, are extremely low due to the sheer number of casualties they’ve had to face. Blood, for example, is desperately needed. Food is also scarce because the shops are bare and new suplies just aren’t reaching the cities due to the turmoil.
However I take your point that the West might need those thimgs more than the East.
What else do you think will be needed? I want to be able to come to the meeting prepared with some really constructive ideas and suggestions rather just as just another well-intentioned warm body filling a seat.
I was reading something earlier that the US is sending Hillary to Switzerland to discuss what’s going on and see what our options are…perhaps to see if Kaddafi is willing to negotiate a surrender and leave peacefully. Obama is also discussing options with the US military (and presumably our other allies). I also know that a lot of governments are moving their people out of the region, but that in the US there are supplies being located for possible distribution to Libya when they can safely be gotten in. I’d be shocked if similar things weren’t happening in Europe as well.
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Seriously, WTF? Yesterday it was the USA, today it’s Arabian terrorists? Yesterday it was foreign intelligence operatives, today it’s drugs?
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Yeah, I read that earlier. He’s been contending that drugs were one of the primary causes all along. I think the AQ thing is a last ditch effort to get the US and Europe on his side to fight the ‘terrorists’…or something. He’s definitely off the deep end and sinking rapidly towards the drain.
Marx, on the occasion of the coup of Napoleon III, said, “When history repeats itself, it does so the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”