BFF “Graffiti and billboards here tell a tale of dashed hopes and an uncertain future in a nation divided between Moammar Kadafi’s tenacious regime in western Libya and the fragile rebel government-in-waiting in the east. The graffiti that proclaimed “Game over” for Kadafi in February and spoke longingly of freedom have faded in the scorching summer sun. Gone are rebel billboards that once blared “No foreign intervention!” Now billboards warn rebel gunmen to stop firing their weapons into the air because ammunition is precious and, as the image of a distressed baby attests, it terrifies families. Frayed posters still thank NATO nations for airstrikes and sea and air embargoes, but the rebel leadership is growing impatient with unfulfilled promises of cash payments and with NATO’s failure to topple Kadafi. The enthusiastic daily rallies that once clogged streets and sent tracer fire into the night skies are gone………..”
The Libyan civil war is at a stalemate, for now. Even with Nato airplanes and advisers, the rebels in Benghazi seem unable to tilt the existing balance. There was another civil war some seventy years ago, when a European country was divided: one side attracted volunteers of democracy advocates, the other side attracted the dark forces of Nazism and Fascism. The Luftwaffe, the German Air Force, helped the fascist Falangist forces under General Franco . Franco won the civil war but was smart or lucky enough to remain ‘neutral’ during World War II. This is not to compare Nato to the Germans of 1936, but there is some superficial similarities. Many Western volunteers, from Europe and the United States, fought with the democratic (Republican) side in Spain. Of course the Qaddafi side is not exactly democratic, and is led by a nasty dictator and his family. Cheers
mhg
BFF “A high-profile son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said Wednesday his family had forged an alliance with Islamist rebels to drive out the secular opposition to his father’s 40-year rule. Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, who along with his father had long branded the entire opposition as radical extremists, told The New York Times: “The liberals will escape or be killed… We will do it together.” “Libya will look like Saudi Arabia, like Iran. So what?” he added, in what the Times described as an hour-long interview that stretched past midnight in a nearly deserted Tripoli hotel..…….”
Is young Qaddafi trying his hand at poker? Trying to bluff the West with this “Islamist” threat? Arab leaders have been doing that, raising the threat of a theocracy, for a couple of decades now, just as African and Asian leaders raised the threat of Communism in the old Cold War days.He is no different from the rulers of Bahrain or Syria or Yemen who also raise the threat of Salafi al-Qaeda or pro-Iranian Islamists to explain their peoples’ uprisings against oppression. Or is he also addressing the Libyan rebels in Benghazi? Most likely he is addressing both, but he is not subtle enough for a good game of poker. Cheers
mhg
My BFF “One of America’s most senior diplomats claimed at the United Nations security council that Muammar Gaddafi is supplying his troops with Viagra to encourage mass rape, according to diplomats. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN made the claim while accusing Gaddafi of numerous human rights abuses. Earlier in the week Rice also claimed, without offering any evidence, that Iran is helping Syria suppress internal dissent. Foreign affairs specialists expressed scepticism about both claims. The Viagra claim surfaced in an al-Jazeera report last month from Libya-based doctors who said they had found Viagra in the pockets of pro-Gaddafi soldiers. But it is a jump from that to suggesting Gaddafi is supplying troops with it to encourage mass rape…….. Earlier in the week, Rice deplored the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on dissent and cited Iranian involvement. “Instead of listening to their own people, President Assad is disingenuously blaming outsiders, while seeking Iranian assistance in repressing Syria’s citizens, through the same brutal tactics that have been used by the Iranian regime……The state department said it has credible information but would not elaborate…….”
This sounds like an urban legend propagated by Susan Rice: like the sightings of Elvis in Nevada or the sighting of Saddam Hussein in Bahrain (these are only Saddam wannabes and former thugs). No doubt Qaddafi used Viagra and probably even Cialis (for “when the moment is right” as the famous ad says). I suspect he used it on and for himself, not for his forces. In other words, I suspect this Viagra story is just more bullshit, something Ms Rice should try not to step into in the future. Cheers
mhg
BFF North African leaders, like other Arab leaders, are not very creative. They also have mostly tended to blame the uprisings on the same unlikely factors. The culprits are always a combination of Islamists and drugs (one also added that old Arab stand-by Zionism and the new stand-by Iran):
Tunisia. Home of the first Arab revolution (still ongoing as the people want to make sure they get the democracy they fought for). Dictator Bin Ali, to his credit, did not blame the unrest on drugs or Iran or al-Qaeda or crusaders. Not that I know of. He was more dignified than all those who followed, especially in Libya or Bahrain: he left when the people made their wish known. Egypt. For decades Mubarak convinced the West that he was the only thing between Egypt and al-Qaeda (well, al-Zawahiri). That he stood blocking another Arab-Israeli war. He tried again last January to play the al-Qaeda card, but it was wearing thin. Maybe the dictator believed it. He had help from his Saudi allies in that task: they and the Emirati and Bahraini rulers stuck by him to the end, urging him to defy his people. He did not listen to them and in the end proved more honorable than, say, the Bahraini monarchy that chose to kill its people with foreign help. People could see that the young rebels at Tahrir did not wear Taliban Turbans or Salafi ghutra & egal, so he switched to drugs. Some of his frustrated henchmen even claimed that drugs mingled with free sex at Tahrir Square. Libya. Qaddafi has blamed his troubles on al-Qaeda and drugs and a Western crusade. He himself looks stoned out of his head whenever he appears publicly. on the upside: he made ‘zenga zenga‘ a household word around the world. Algeria. The French have been gone for fifty years, so Bouteflika and his generals cannot blame them. The Islamists were once a serious danger in the 1990s: they had won one election and were poised to win a bigger one, before the ruling class decided to cancel all elections. That led to a long and gruesome civil war. It can happen again if the dictatorship refuses to open up and allow competition. Cheers
mhg
Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF
