Al-Jazeera: Rebels will not prosecute Gaddafi for any crimes if he steps down within 72 hours.
They know something we don’t, that they feel strong enough to set a deadline?!
It’s win/win from their standpoint. If he steps down they are rid of him; not as satisfying as tossing him in prison or killing him, but they are the ones doing the dying not us. And if as I expect Gaddafi refuses they add a bit of polish to their eventually overrunning and killing him; they gave him a chance to surrender after all.
Anyway, the Council has no legitimate authority (If it hasn’t changed, even whatever it is that currently rules the city of Benghazi doesn’t recognize it). They can let him go, promise whatever he wants, and then the next government can ask for his extradition all the same.
At this point, I rather doubt that the rebels will be doing much “overrunning” at all. From recent reporting, it appears that their progress has been checked, their recent gains have been reversed, and they are currently on the receiving end of an effective counter-offensive. I fully expect them to lose this civil war (unless the actual situation is drastically different from that which is being reported).
Bear in mind that this is not a situation of symmetrical victory scenarios. From the rebels’ POV, “winning” means getting rid of Gaddafi. That might or might not happen. But from Gaddafi’s POV, “winning” means bringing the country back under his control again, it means putting everything back the way it was a month ago. That will not happen, not unless all but his followers die.
The people may be whipped back into submission if he wins. I believe he would purge a lot of people. The price the Libyan people would have to pay, may make them fight on.
CNN reports today Gaddafi kept journalists waiting 8 hours for a press conference and then left the building.
OK, he has no hope of getting the foreign media on his side at this point, but, still! What idiocy!
CNN reporting that Gaddafi, based on a televised speech today, now blames the uprising on “Communist agents of America.” (Anderson Cooper cautions that this is an early translation of his statement and they are trying to find a better one.)
Commissar is the puppet master behind the revolt? :eek:
They’re claiming to have shot down a plane which had both Libyan and Syrian pilots flying it. Kinda odd that the pilots couldn’t eject from damage caused by anti-aircraft guns which would itself be a spectacularly lucky shot.
“Workers of the world unite!” except for Libyans.
:dubious:
Isn’t that a bourgeois concept? A tool of the capitalists to oppress the proletariat? I thought the final goal of Communists was the ‘withering away’ of the state.
Gaddafi is losing it big time. Not exactly sure the last time he ever had it though. Maybe in 1968.
I so want to see a conversation between Sheen and Gaddafi though. Megalomania would be more fun to watch when it implodes (explodes?) if it did not claim so many bystanders when it does.
The insurgents in Libya apparently created their official website
Mostly empty at the moment.
Youtube link . Sorry, the commentary is in French. However, the journalists were apparently present when the plane was shot down. The commentator states towards the end of the video : “at some distance the bodies of the two pilots, according to their documents, a Libyan and a Syrian”
Obviously I can’t be sure the journalist actually saw the documents (as opposed to being told that they belonged to a Libyan and a Syrian).
There are Libyans fighting for the present government, and those fighting against it. Which side would you see us “unite” with? The side that you are biased in favor of? Where would that leave those of us that are biased in favor of the opposing side?
Your problem is that you appear to believe that you know what the Libyans need, and you have no compulsions about killing a bunch of them to impose your viewpoint on them. I find such paternalistic arrogance entirely abhorrent. The only just thing to do is to stand back and watch the conflict unfold at its own pace, and with its own outcomes. If you’re really concerned about the Libyans, get ready to offer humanitarian and economic support to whoever the winner ends up being; that would be much more helpful than subjugating them with military might.
Be that as it may (and I personally am not unduly concerned with this idea), the “withering away of the state” is clearly intended to come from within. It is a domestic issue to be addressed (or not) by the various states as they reach that fork in their respective histories. It has nothing to do with the type of state-to-state conflict that you’re advocating.
“Bystanders?” You mean the armed rebels that decided it would be an awesome idea to seize political power in a bloody uprising? I think that you have your chain of causation wrong, if you honestly believe that this civil war is the Colonel’s doing.
Oh boy, that’s a real hard one but let me take a shot.
The ones fighting for their freedom against a mad, torturing dictator shelling and bombing his own cities while murderous foreign mercenary packs terrorize the populace?
Wow. That wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.
High Fives everyone.
Astonishing reporting from Sky News team inside Zawiya (a bit graphic in parts):
That may work for you, but I would rather come down on the side of the brave loyalists selflessly fighting to preserve the nation’s unity, prosperity, and the rule of one of the greatest heroes of our otherwise dark times. There is no way in hell I would give my support to a rabid pack of ignorant, bloodthirsty, pro-Western murdering traitors whose only apparent goal is to bring this once-proud nation to its knees.
Like I said, biases. You’ve got yours, I’ve got mine. Quit assuming that your words are gospel and that you speak for the rest of us; you do not.
The problem is that you are rapidly convincing everyone that you don’t mean what you are saying, or are trying to aggravate people by stating your views as provocatively as possible. I don’t think you ever complied with tomndebb’s request to provide a real political philosophy either. It still seems to be ‘whatever is bad for the West and unpopular here is good.’ You also managed to ignore a cite about Libya’s “prosperity.” You will not last much longer here if this behavior continues.
OTOH, it is safe to assume that on this subject tagos speaks for far, far more people than you do.
Want to put it to a vote?
No. Thought not.