- After some 8,000 bombing raids, with estimates of 4 bombs
used per attack NATO has already dropped over 30,000 bombs on Libya. That's
almost 200 bombs per day for 6 months, some tens of thousands of tons of
high explosives. With an estimated 2 Libyans killed per bomb and without
a single NATO casualty the Western regimes have massacred over 60,000 Libyans
in the past half year with the rebels themselves having said there have
been 50,000 Libyan deaths. One hell of a humanitarian intervention isn't
it?
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- How the "civil war" in Libya has proceeded
can best be described in light of the events of August 21. On that Sunday
afternoon a BBC film crew showed a rebel column fleeing the approaches
to Zawiya outside of Tripoli. With their tales between their legs, glancing
fearfully over their shoulders as they fled wildly back down the road from
whence they came, even the BBC presstitute on the scene could not contain
his disgust at the sight. Once again the rebels had run into stiff resistance
and had shown their true mettle by fleeing the fight.
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- The next morning a France24 reporter recounted how later
that Sunday night she had accompanied these same rebels as they drove almost
unopposed through Zawiya into Green Square in the heart of Tripoli, this
time passing row upon row of bombed out still burning buildings.
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- This has been NATO's war and while the world may not
understand this, the Libyan rebels certainly do.
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- A major problem for NATO and its Libyan Quisling League
a.k.a the National Transitional Council (NTC) is that most of rebel military
is now under the leadership the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a
self described affiliate of Al Queda in the Maghreb (North Africa). The
"general" in command of the mainly ethnic Berber rebel fighters
that have captured the Libyan capital, known as the Tripoli Military Council,
is the head of the LIFG. One of his top commanders is head of the Benghazi
based rebel army. With the recent murder of "General" Younnis,
former head of the Libyan secret police and once considered the most feared
man in the country, the LIFG has now taken over leadership of almost all
of the most effective fighting forces of the Libyan rebellion.
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- Quite an accomplishment and Al Queda in the Maghreb's
sincere thanks must go to the USA and its allies in NATO.
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- As the former LIFG terrorists turned "freedom fighters"
go house to house arresting and executing "Gaddafi supporters"
and "African mercenaries" in Tripoli life for the ordinary people
of the city has become one of survival. Without water for almost two weeks
now, without cooking gas or fuel for their cars and with food in short
supply the future for the people of Tripoli remains uncertain.
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- Some reports in the international media have claimed
that the Great Man Made River (GMMR), the irrigation system that supplies
northern Libya with almost all its water was bombed by NATO. Other reports
claim that "Gaddafi loyalists" still control the southern water
wells and have shut off the water supply. If the later is true then even
Benghazi's water supply is in jeopardy. In any case, Tripoli is going to
be dependent on imported water for quite some time and how a city of almost
2 million is to survive using water imported via water trucks is a question
the western media has stopped talking about.
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- The "Transitional National Council" now recognized
as "the legitimate government of Libya" by NATO governments and
their allies is made up of many former high ranking Libyan Government officials
and is increasingly caught in a tough spot. With the African Union trying
to block the release of Libyan Government funds held in western banks there
is little time to spare if this NTC's control is to remain in place.
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- South African President Jacob Zuma has condemned the
NTC leaders as embezzlers and demanded they return the tens of millions
of dollars the NTC top leaderships is charged with stealing during their
days in office in the Libyan government before the AU lifts its opposition
to Gaddafi government funds being released to the NTC.
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- NATO leaders are having to scramble to keep the NTC afloat.
Images of pallets stacked 6 feet high with 200 million Libyan Dinars flown
in from London show just how touch and go it has become for the NTC's attempts
to maintain its influence. While NATO's "Friends of LIbya" circus
held in Paris promises the release of Libya's $billions held ransom by
the west, implementing these promises is another matter all together. Corruption
and incompetence mark the NTC leadership's past and is will come as no
surprise to hear reports of massive embezzlement of these funds in the
future
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- How much longer the LIFG/Al Queda lead rebel armies will
stand by and allow their former bitter enemies in the TNC to remain in
power is the $60 billion question. Already the rebel "government"
in the port city of Misrata has announced they do not recognize the authority
of the TNC and rally's demanding the removal of the former Libyan government
officials in the TNC have been reported taking place on an almost daily
basis there.
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- In the mean time the vast reaches of the southern Libyan
desert has not been conquered by NATO and almost all of Libya's water and
much of its oil remains outside of the control of the NTC.
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- With hundreds of villages and small towns scattered across
an immense area Col. Gaddafi and his supporters still have a vast area
at their disposal. With Algeria fighting Al Queda in the Maghreb their
border on Libya's western flank remains open and allows opponents of the
NATO backed rebels a safe haven. The NTC has already raised the alarm about
a nasty long term insurrection based in southern Libya using Algeria as
base.
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- So far the Al Queda lead rebel fighters and the west's
bully boys in the NTC have yet to begin to eat each other though it seems
almost inevitable that internal warfare amongst the rebels will take place.
We may yet see NATO warplanes bombing its erstwhile allies in the Libyan
rebellion.
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- The one thing that is clear is that the Libyan Tragedy
has just begun and that the capture of most of northern Libya by the NATO
backed rebels is just its first phase. 30,000 bombs over Libya killing
some 60,000 Libyans marks the beginning rather than the end of this disaster.
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- Thomas C. Mountain was a member of the 1st US Peace Delegation
to Libya in 1987 and is the only independent western journalist in the
Horn of Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be
reached at thomascmountain at yahoo dot com.
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