The Libyan unrest started 6 weeks ago.
The UN passed the Resolution 1973 on March 17, accepting the establishment of the "no-fly zone" over Libya, to protect civilians.
French military attacked the Gaddafi's forces on March 19, saving the city of Benghazi and it's inhabitants from the fury of the Regime.
British and US Cruise missiles started falling on the designated military targets on March 20.
NATO took over the implementation of the "no-fly zone" over Libya on March 25.
Stalemate.
The Opposition forces containing mostly young and untrained fighters have proven already that with a "little help from their friends" (allied air support) can make a stand against quite well organized, trained and well equipped Gaddafi's army. All the observers agree that it's not a regular army. They are disorganized, acting on emotions, not knowing the concept of the chain of command, not understanding logistics, wasting ammunition making a lot of noise.
At the same time, however, they are driven by the passion for the new future for their country. They are on the quest for the new, democratic state...
Since the American and NATO forces started implementation of the "no-fly zone" the power equation has changed, greatly benefiting the Opposition. The Libyan conflict has proven to be much more dynamic than anticipated. Gaddafi's forces adjusted their strategy, evolved adapting to the imposed model of war. Instead of using the heavy armor in an obvious and visible way, the Pro-Gaddafi fighters attack in small units, using the light, and agile transport vehicles, making themselves a very difficult target for the Coalition to destroy.
To make the situation more complicated the reported number of sorties performed by all the allied planes has diminished significantly during the last week.
Is it because of the realization that the most of the Libyan defenses have been taken out, and the NATO limits itself to the strict interpretation of the no-fly zone resolution, leaving out the air support for the ground opposition troops? According to AFP, Admiral Mullen said that they had not been able to see through the weather to identify targets. "And that has more than anything else reduced the impact... reduced the effectiveness, and has allowed the regime forces to move back to the east."
We heard in the numerous reports that the Pro-Democracy Fighters had been joined by the big number of regular army soldiers. Very often these defections were done by the whole army units, including their commanders. Representatives of the opposition in the Southern town of Kufrah claimed that the members of the elite Khamis Brigade had gone over to the rebels (the infamous brigade took it's name from it's commander Khamis Gaddafi, who - as suspected - was killed). Reports were informing of a mysterious General who defected with about 13 thousand of the Special Forces soldiers, with the equipment.
Such a great number of the well organized regular army, well armed and motivated, would make a great difference on the 'front line' of the conflict. Unfortunately, for some reason, these alleged defections haven't produced too much of the improvement of the Opposition fighting capabilities. None of the CNN, NBC, or AlJazeera reporters have ever seen these anxiously awaited army units, which would have changed completely the situation. Do they exist at all?
Were all these Opposition claims about army defection, just an attempt to boost morale of the "ragtag" opposition forces? Or, these alleged defections are more just a diabolical plan of the Colonel Gaddafi to infiltrate and destroy the Opposition from within? Such a thought may cross one's mind when we learn that the allied jet-fighter bombed an Opposition fighters convoy near Brega on Saturday, after being shot upon from the ground, and thus mistaking it for the Gaddafi's army...
"As regrettable as it may be, we understand that we might have to give up lives for the greater good. We have to look at the bigger picture," opposition spokesman Mustafa Gheriani said. "This is a war and the lines are so fluid going back and forth, so it's natural that mistakes will happen."
Again, was it a mistake, or some Gaddafi's fighters opened fire on the allied plane from within the convoy or a close proximity?
Suspicions of such a new (for this conflict) Gaddafi's "fifth column" tactics are considered very seriously by all the observers.
Gaddafi is known for using the "cheap tricks". There were many confirmed reports about his army soldiers, dressed in the civilian clothes and hidden in the civilian houses in the cities like Brega, or Ras Lanuf, waiting until the opposition fighters enter the city and attacking them from the behind. Often having their tanks also hidden in the allies or even inside of the houses. There were numerous reports from the outskirts of Sirte (the Dictator's birth place and a stronghold) about the Gaddafi's army units waving the white flag, and "surrendering" to the Opposition, only to open fire on the unsuspecting opposition fighters from the close distance.
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On March 30, the US official sources confirmed (what has already leaked) that Pres. Obama signed the document allowing the CIA covert actions in Libya, and that the CIA operatives were already on the ground to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and to contact and vet the beleaguered opposition forces. AlJazeera correspondents reported that in the Eastern Libya, there was a training camp for the selected Opposition forces, run by the American Special Ops. and the Egyptian Special Ops. Opposition have been asking for a long time for the arms. They have been greatly outgunned by the regime and needed more sophisticated weaponry to fight the Gaddafi's armed brigades. As reported this is the kind of weapons the opposition fighters are right now training for.
The Pro-Democracy fighters have no military training in general, especially when the new, Western made weapons are considered. As reported, they have been already training to use the sophisticated, Heat Seeking, shoulder launched missiles and the bigger and more powerful truck mounted launchers - which already have found their way into Libya, from Egypt.
Since the option of the Western "boots on the ground" has been generally rejected (for the multiplicity of the political reasons), providing the Opposition with the weaponry and the training allowing them to successfully challenge the Gaddafi's armor and rocket launchers, is the only choice of the Coalition. It can be argued if the existing embargo on the weapon trade to Libya in conjunction with the Resolution 1973 can be interpreted allowing such a help. However, considering that the Libyans have to depose the Dictator themselves, without the Western active intervention, it is the only choice.
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There have been many defections of the Libyan officials, since the very beginning of the conflict. We witnessed the Ambassadors to many countries and to the UN, changing allegiance. We witnessed the Ministers changing sides (one of them is the head of the National Council - the main Opposition Governing Body).
In the recent days we could add to that list the Libyan Foreign Minister: Moussa Koussa, who was also a head of the Intelligence in the previous years. This defection delivered a heavy blow to the regime, and constitutes a bottomless well of the information about the regime and it's structure, resources, weak points... As reported by the correspondents in Libya, despite the governmental crack down on the potential defections, many politicians have already, and other prepare to defect. "It is not through actions of war that we can make Gaddafi leave, but rather through strong international pressure to encourage defections by people close to him," said Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini.
Unfortunately, the Libyan structure of the government allows the Leader (Gaddafi) to have an absolute control over the country by himself. He is still surrounded by some supporters (including his family).
Libyan dictator has sent his envoys to other countries several times already, trying to pressure the friendly, and unfriendly governments, and work out some "exit strategy" for himself and the family. Although the details oft these talks have never surfaced (so far), Gaddafi makes that effort repeatedly. Libya's former prime minister, and a current Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, confirming remarks by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton that regime figures were trying to get in contact, said on Friday: "We are trying to talk to the British, the French and the Americans to stop the killing of people. We are trying to find a mutual solution". His comments followed the disclosure that a senior aide to Gaddafi's powerful son, Saif al-Islam, had met British officials last week on a visit to London.
On Sunday, 04.03, Abdel Ati al-Obeidi flew to Athens carrying a personal message from Gaddafi to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, that Libya wanted the fighting to end, a Greek government official told Reuters.
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The pundits and analysts all over the Globe, as well as the military strategists are already unanimous in their opinion that considering the existing stalemate in the fights in Libya the solution to the crisis is probably going to be a political one, not a military. Only time will tell...
Monday, April 4, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
All actions have their consequences - burning of the Quran...
...and we have a winner In the ongoing contest for a title of THE WORST AMERICAN. The winner is:
Pastor Terry Jones - an evangelical preacher from an nondenominational church of Gainesville, Fla. , who on March 20, 2011 burned a copy of the Islam Holy Book, after months of a public condemnation of the aforementioned act.
Intolerance is a part of the human psyche. There is no doubt about it. In the less socially advanced societies as well as those based on any kind of dogma (religious or political), intolerance leads to hatred, sometimes manifested by the acts of stupidity, sometimes by the acts of violence... In some dictatorial states, unsuspecting anything World learned about the racial, or ethnic tensions only after deposing of the regime, and springing from it ethnic cleansing. It was a case in the former Yugoslavia, it was a case in Rwanda, even Iraq...
More advanced socially, democratic states of Europe and America are not immune to these tensions, although the resulting from it hatred doesn't produce as many victims as in the previous examples, with the obvious exception of the Holocaust of the Jewish population in the invaded by Germany countries of Europe during the World War 2.
During more than 200 years of forging of the United States of America, it's society went through many dark periods, producing never healed scars in the people's minds.
Let aside the never completely eradicated (yet), racism, which still affects the fabric of our society, there were periods of time when a certain ethnic or religious minorities were isolated, detained, persecuted just for being members of that particular minority. It happened during the World War 2 to the Japanese minority. Many Japanese-Americans being a long time citizens of the USA or even born here, became the subject to the detention in the "War Relocation Camps" in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. Of those interned, 62% were American citizens.
In the late XIX century for a quite a long time the Catholics in the USA were a target of the severe persecution.
In the early nineteen-fifties a senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy instigated a country-wide mass hysteria which cased a "witch hunt", a persecution of anybody who could be accused (in the most cases falsely) of any Communist tendencies, or sympathies.
And then came 911, when 19 terrorists, acting out of hatred to our Country and the West in general attacked the USA in the worst terrorist attack ever, on our land. They were from a few different countries. They had, however, one thing in common (beside the obvious hatred to the USA) - they were all MUSLIM.
The Anti-Muslim sentiments have been always lurking in the Western societies. People fear what they can't understand. Muslim population in a great degree does not assimilate well in the Western countries. They stand out. Look a bit different, dress a bit different... But the 911 opened the Pandora's Box. The Muslim population in the US (about 3 million strong) became a target of violence, vandalism, arson...
In the meantime America got involved in 2 big wars, against Afghanistan, and Iraq (both Muslim countries). And even then our (then) President G.W. Bush explained over and over that America was not in the war with Islam, just with some of it's extreme followers.
In the beginning of this year the Congressional Hearing was called for, to investigate "The threat of radicalization of Muslim Community in the USA".
"We continue to solicit and receive the support of many Muslim Americans who love this nation and work with our government to protect it," said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who chaired the proceedings.
"At the same time, many law-abiding Muslim Americans face discrimination and charges that they're not real Americans simply because of their religion."
We all know what the Islamist Extremists are responsible for in the World. We hear about the suicide bombers or attacks on the hotels, political assassinations in Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Pakistan... It's easy to stir our imagination knowing that since 911 more than a hundred terrorist plots have been discovered and neutralized in the States. Most of them have been dealt with successfully thanks to the Muslim Community, which in general is a community of the law obedient and honest, hard working people who are grateful for the opportunities presented by the USA.
------------
Christians value their Bible as a Holy Book - written by the disciples, telling the truth of faith, but still being only a book. It's not a case with the Islam. The Quran (Kur'an, Koran etc) is in their beliefs not only a book containing the holly scripture. In their belief the Quran itself is THE WORD OF GOD. There are many aspects of the Islam, the non-believers do not understand (and their do not need to). However, the ignorance can NEVER be an excuse for any offensive acts against any religion.
In 2005 a Danish newspaper posted a series of cartoons showing a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad (so called "Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy"). Since the Prophet's depiction is blasphemous to people of the Muslim faith, the protests exploded in many of the Muslim countries, some of which escalated into violence with instances of firing on crowds of protesters (resulting in a total of more than 100 reported deaths), including setting fire to the Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, storming European buildings, and burning the Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, French and German flags in Gaza City.
The act of posting such cartoons by a Danish cartoonist was an offensive act which had it's consequences (and it wasn't out of ignorance). We all learned about that in a hard way. Many people lost their lives...
In July 2010 the US public opinion was suddenly alerted by the prospect of another act against the Islam as such. In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, planed to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. "We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," Pastor Terry Jones told CNN's Rick Sanchez. Terry Jones was also an author of a book titled "Islam is of the Devil.
To my surprise, the general response of the US society to this proposed act of dangerous stupidity, was overwhelmingly negative. Muslim community, along with the most of Evangelicals and other Christian denominations condemned the idea, as unnecessarily inflammatory, and carrying the unforeseen risks. In a few days preceding the planned event we learned that in Baghdad itself, there was a small Christian community who's church had been attacked several times prior to these events, and who's very existence would be threatened by the possible reaction to the proposed Quran burning.
And yet, on March 20, 2011 Pastor Terry Jones carried away his offensive, idiotic act. He burned a copy of the Quran and posted the video of it on YouTube.com...
Most of the logically thinking people in the World condemned it unanimously, along with the official disapproval of many governments. However, in Kabul, Afghanistan, the mass protests escalated into a violence when demonstrators set cars and shops ablaze. The uproar even brought violence to the normally peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, when a crowd of protesters — apparently infiltrated by insurgents — stormed the U.N. compound in an attack that left four Afghan protesters and seven foreign U.N. employees dead. Several days after the violent protests in Afghanistan started, the tensions are still strong and the demonstrations continue, reviving the growing discontent of the Afghans against the US occupation. Anti-Western sentiments triggered by the act of Pastor Terry Jones resulted also in several additional suicide bombings and numerous incidents of the flag burning.
------------
After 2005 Danish cartoon incident we already had a chance to learn what is the reaction of the Muslims around the World to the blasphemy perpetrated by the West. It has already happened. People have died in the result of it. The relation between the act itself and the Muslim response is clearly defined and understood by all.
Bearing this knowledge, how can any sane person commit such an offensive (and proving nothing) act and completely disregard the danger of instigating the violence which may cost many innocent lives?
How can a person who claims to be a "Man of God" be so shortsighted and egocentric to cause a loss of life of many, just to prove (in his mind) a point. The reaction of very conservative Muslims in Afghanistan has not been unfathomable. Quite a contrary, it was an easy to predict reaction, following the same pattern as in 2005.
In my eyes, Pastor Terry Jones is directly responsible for the resulting from his act, loss of life and increased instability of the region, since he did what he did, being aware of the consequences. He himself killed the victims of the riots in Afghanistan.
Pastor Terry Jones - an evangelical preacher from an nondenominational church of Gainesville, Fla. , who on March 20, 2011 burned a copy of the Islam Holy Book, after months of a public condemnation of the aforementioned act.
Intolerance is a part of the human psyche. There is no doubt about it. In the less socially advanced societies as well as those based on any kind of dogma (religious or political), intolerance leads to hatred, sometimes manifested by the acts of stupidity, sometimes by the acts of violence... In some dictatorial states, unsuspecting anything World learned about the racial, or ethnic tensions only after deposing of the regime, and springing from it ethnic cleansing. It was a case in the former Yugoslavia, it was a case in Rwanda, even Iraq...
More advanced socially, democratic states of Europe and America are not immune to these tensions, although the resulting from it hatred doesn't produce as many victims as in the previous examples, with the obvious exception of the Holocaust of the Jewish population in the invaded by Germany countries of Europe during the World War 2.
During more than 200 years of forging of the United States of America, it's society went through many dark periods, producing never healed scars in the people's minds.
Let aside the never completely eradicated (yet), racism, which still affects the fabric of our society, there were periods of time when a certain ethnic or religious minorities were isolated, detained, persecuted just for being members of that particular minority. It happened during the World War 2 to the Japanese minority. Many Japanese-Americans being a long time citizens of the USA or even born here, became the subject to the detention in the "War Relocation Camps" in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. Of those interned, 62% were American citizens.
In the late XIX century for a quite a long time the Catholics in the USA were a target of the severe persecution.
In the early nineteen-fifties a senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy instigated a country-wide mass hysteria which cased a "witch hunt", a persecution of anybody who could be accused (in the most cases falsely) of any Communist tendencies, or sympathies.
And then came 911, when 19 terrorists, acting out of hatred to our Country and the West in general attacked the USA in the worst terrorist attack ever, on our land. They were from a few different countries. They had, however, one thing in common (beside the obvious hatred to the USA) - they were all MUSLIM.
The Anti-Muslim sentiments have been always lurking in the Western societies. People fear what they can't understand. Muslim population in a great degree does not assimilate well in the Western countries. They stand out. Look a bit different, dress a bit different... But the 911 opened the Pandora's Box. The Muslim population in the US (about 3 million strong) became a target of violence, vandalism, arson...
In the meantime America got involved in 2 big wars, against Afghanistan, and Iraq (both Muslim countries). And even then our (then) President G.W. Bush explained over and over that America was not in the war with Islam, just with some of it's extreme followers.
In the beginning of this year the Congressional Hearing was called for, to investigate "The threat of radicalization of Muslim Community in the USA".
"We continue to solicit and receive the support of many Muslim Americans who love this nation and work with our government to protect it," said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who chaired the proceedings.
"At the same time, many law-abiding Muslim Americans face discrimination and charges that they're not real Americans simply because of their religion."
We all know what the Islamist Extremists are responsible for in the World. We hear about the suicide bombers or attacks on the hotels, political assassinations in Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Pakistan... It's easy to stir our imagination knowing that since 911 more than a hundred terrorist plots have been discovered and neutralized in the States. Most of them have been dealt with successfully thanks to the Muslim Community, which in general is a community of the law obedient and honest, hard working people who are grateful for the opportunities presented by the USA.
------------
Christians value their Bible as a Holy Book - written by the disciples, telling the truth of faith, but still being only a book. It's not a case with the Islam. The Quran (Kur'an, Koran etc) is in their beliefs not only a book containing the holly scripture. In their belief the Quran itself is THE WORD OF GOD. There are many aspects of the Islam, the non-believers do not understand (and their do not need to). However, the ignorance can NEVER be an excuse for any offensive acts against any religion.
In 2005 a Danish newspaper posted a series of cartoons showing a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad (so called "Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy"). Since the Prophet's depiction is blasphemous to people of the Muslim faith, the protests exploded in many of the Muslim countries, some of which escalated into violence with instances of firing on crowds of protesters (resulting in a total of more than 100 reported deaths), including setting fire to the Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, storming European buildings, and burning the Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, French and German flags in Gaza City.
The act of posting such cartoons by a Danish cartoonist was an offensive act which had it's consequences (and it wasn't out of ignorance). We all learned about that in a hard way. Many people lost their lives...
In July 2010 the US public opinion was suddenly alerted by the prospect of another act against the Islam as such. In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, planed to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. "We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," Pastor Terry Jones told CNN's Rick Sanchez. Terry Jones was also an author of a book titled "Islam is of the Devil.
To my surprise, the general response of the US society to this proposed act of dangerous stupidity, was overwhelmingly negative. Muslim community, along with the most of Evangelicals and other Christian denominations condemned the idea, as unnecessarily inflammatory, and carrying the unforeseen risks. In a few days preceding the planned event we learned that in Baghdad itself, there was a small Christian community who's church had been attacked several times prior to these events, and who's very existence would be threatened by the possible reaction to the proposed Quran burning.
And yet, on March 20, 2011 Pastor Terry Jones carried away his offensive, idiotic act. He burned a copy of the Quran and posted the video of it on YouTube.com...
Most of the logically thinking people in the World condemned it unanimously, along with the official disapproval of many governments. However, in Kabul, Afghanistan, the mass protests escalated into a violence when demonstrators set cars and shops ablaze. The uproar even brought violence to the normally peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, when a crowd of protesters — apparently infiltrated by insurgents — stormed the U.N. compound in an attack that left four Afghan protesters and seven foreign U.N. employees dead. Several days after the violent protests in Afghanistan started, the tensions are still strong and the demonstrations continue, reviving the growing discontent of the Afghans against the US occupation. Anti-Western sentiments triggered by the act of Pastor Terry Jones resulted also in several additional suicide bombings and numerous incidents of the flag burning.
------------
After 2005 Danish cartoon incident we already had a chance to learn what is the reaction of the Muslims around the World to the blasphemy perpetrated by the West. It has already happened. People have died in the result of it. The relation between the act itself and the Muslim response is clearly defined and understood by all.
Bearing this knowledge, how can any sane person commit such an offensive (and proving nothing) act and completely disregard the danger of instigating the violence which may cost many innocent lives?
How can a person who claims to be a "Man of God" be so shortsighted and egocentric to cause a loss of life of many, just to prove (in his mind) a point. The reaction of very conservative Muslims in Afghanistan has not been unfathomable. Quite a contrary, it was an easy to predict reaction, following the same pattern as in 2005.
In my eyes, Pastor Terry Jones is directly responsible for the resulting from his act, loss of life and increased instability of the region, since he did what he did, being aware of the consequences. He himself killed the victims of the riots in Afghanistan.
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