Carl from Chicago

The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt were mere warm-ups; the revolution in Libya definitely looks more like a civil war. The city of Benghazi has apparently fallen to the protesters – they raised the old tri-color flag prior to Gaddafi’s takeover (which is just a green flag, apparently the only flag in the world with no additional markings).

I am not an expert on Libya by a long shot but apparently the tribes in the region near Benghazi have now said Gaddafi must go so it is unclear how the government could conceivably re-take the area short of a concentrated military campaign. The history of Libya under Gaddafi is littered with military adventures of this sort that turned out disastrously (see the Chad war) so it seems highly unlikely that this is in the cards.

Little is verified but it appears that soldiers were executed for failing to shoot protesters and likely much more will come out now that the city has been taken over by the insurgents.

In Tripoli there are major reports of heavy violence including the use of sniper units to kill protesters and thugs just driving around and shooting out of cars and running people over; also in calls sounds of rocket fire and heavy weapons.

It is telling to me at least that the government is now saying that the West wants to “take over” Libya including the Turks and the Italians; I guess they played out the Zionist card.

The other element is that apparently expat workers from South Korea, Bangladesh and Turkey were attacked by mobs. These workers were in Libya likely on construction projects in support of the oil industry. Like the BP spill, the major companies have likely under-estimated the chance of a major conflagration and the danger to their staff on the ground in being caught in the midst of a civil war.

Finally, for humor there is an Al Jazeera editorial blaming the West for all of this “Has West Failed to See Inevitability of Freedom” which blames the US and the West for the fact that the Arab world is ruled by despots and dictators. I was waiting for the inevitable “spin” of how all the Arab world’s problems come from the West and not from within their own sphere of influence and I am sure that this is the first of many; actions on the ground are moving faster than their ability to spin stories.

I also would like to see how these stories play out among the youth (over half the population is under 20) who have known nothing but oppression at the hands of their fellow Arabs and they know that the dictators that run the country and their families walk away with all the value from their oil and other resources. Colonialism is as distant to them as the US civil war is to us; generations away. And not only that, Colonialism and the West have always been the “whipping boy” for why repression is needed in the first place, so that argument is completely played out. But expect to see variants of this coming in the next days, months, and years. And for many Western journalists to write them, as well.

I generally do not link an old-school dictator like Gaddafi with innovation but here is one in my book from the Al Jazeera live blog:

He also provides another account of security forces using high-caliber, possibly anti-aircraft guns against protesters.

In other posts the doctors mentioned seeing bullets “as big as their fists” in the dead and wounded that they are treating.

I am unaware of any other incidents in recent times when the army began directing high caliber high velocity weapons like this against (unarmed) protesters. I have seen water cannons, tear gas, and then escalating to small arms fire but using these sorts of weapons against civilians from your own nation is truly an innovation by Mr. Gaddafi.

As a commenter noted on my last post Gaddafi is on the United Nations Human Rights Council as you can see here. I would be interested in how directing anti-aircraft weaponry against unarmed protesters plays in the UN – probably not a big deal there, I would imagine.

In the Al Jazeera live blog on Libya I looked at the comments and one of the commentors mentioned that we should bring in the UN to stop the carnage of Gadaffi using automatic weapons and rockets on his own people as well as employing out-of-country mercenaries to do his dirty work.

So I went over to the UN web site for the middle east and I can see that they are up on the situation; what is on their “breaking news” section except headlines chiding Israel and talking about Gaza and Palestine, a situation that they have done nothing to solve over the last 60+ years.

Why don’t they call out Gaddafi for his murderous activity? Where are the frenzied resolutions? Where is the outrage? Nowhere, I guess, since of course Gaddafi is one of the types of anti-Western media-friendly yet murderous and thug-like regimes that they adore.

I guess all the resolutions and outrage only apply to Israel; they just sweep the dirty news about their favorites under the rug.

Al Jazeera is often called out for their anti-Israeli and anti-Western tone. It is difficult for me to say as an outsider whether these incidents are occasional or systemic; and frankly when you are supporting Mubarak in his 80’s (as the US is doing) at some point this is going to blow up in your face. After all, the guy isn’t immortal.

What Al Jazeera DOES have going for them is credibility among the Arab populace, at least compared to the Western based networks like the US news organizations or the BBC. This is valuable because they are far closer to reality than the propaganda based coverage provided by their own governments.

When the protests become energetic all of Al Jazeera’s people on the ground or connections in countries where journalists aren’t allowed (like Libya) become more valuable because frankly that’s all we’ve got, other than Gaddafi’s lies. Those contacts probably weren’t going to talk to Western news organizations so it is either Al Jazeera or nothing.

If you look at their English language site, they are covering the unrest in Libya and appear to be pulling no punches. They seem to be acting like journalists, calling the facts on the ground, based upon whatever information they can get (I can’t read the Arab version of the site, so for all I know they could be saying something else).

Here is the main article calling out 200 or more dead and here is a live blog. The live blog is very interesting as it shows the apparent difference between the East and West sides of the country and that the military is coming down hard on protesters in Benghazi while the capitol in Tripoli is relatively calm.

I can’t tell if it is self serving but it makes me chuckle when I see this on their live blog

The attitude in Tripoli contrasts starkly with that in the Easy (sp he means “East”). Many people in Tripoli do not believe that what is happening in the East is real, they either attribute it to the ‘propaganda’ of al-Jazeera (against which have been directed several slogans) or say that Egyptians and Tunisians have infiltrated the country, that ‘real Libyans’ wouldn’t do such things. Historically, the two regions have not been great friends, and now whatever tension there was recently has been sharpening into open hate and disgust towards Eastern Libyans. Some people refer to them as ‘Zionists and Israelis’.

I guess now they are using their harshest insults (to them, at least) – calling their own countrymen Zionists for daring to question the leadership of that madman Gadaffi who has ruled the country since 1969 as absolute dictator.

The methods that Gaddafi’s military are using against what appear to be peaceful protests are overwhelming and completely out of bounds. From the BBC:

There were also widespread reports that foreign mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa – paid by the Libyan government – had been brought in to attack protesters. Another resident told the BBC that 40 people had been killed in a short space of time.
 
“Just about an hour ago, more than 40 people have been shot dead in the streets of Benghazi,” he said, blaming the violence on the country’s veteran leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi.
 
“Please, please tell the world – let the world know that he’s killing the people for no reason. They’re very peaceful protesters. He’s bringing foreigners from nowhere, from nowhere, Africans, black African snipers shooting the people in the streets of Benghazi, now he’s attacking Benghazi itself with rocket missiles.”

Gaddafi has generally gotten a free pass from the usual suspects because of his (relative to Mubarak) media antics and entertainment value (such as his tent stunt in NYC) and the fact that he ritualistically “stands up” to the west.

While US ties to the Egyptian military and US pressure on Mubarak helped to make that transition occur relatively peacefully, you can see how a “real” non-aligned nation treats its citizens while they attempt to do the same thing, protest peacefully. They bring in mercenaries and utilize machine guns and rockets against their own citizens.

Where are the protests in the US? In the UN? Of course the non-aligned nations don’t give the remotest crap about human rights; they want to be able to do whatever they want to their people if that’s what it takes to control the resources that provide the money for their personal gain. And since we feel guilty about colonialism or whatever else we don’t stand up and call out this type of brutal behavior the way we ought to.

Don’t worry; if he is able to wipe out the opposition (which he may be able to do) there will be plenty of nations ready to buy his oil, from China to Italy, since human rights are way down the scale when it comes to doing business.