Al Jazeera hits a bull's eye:
Compare the Libyan situation to the end of the first war against Iraq, when President George Bush incited Kurds and Shia Iraqis to rise up against Saddam Hussein. But Saddam, in control of the skies, brutally crushed the uprising using helicopter gunships.
-- Al Jazeera, March 5th
We've all heard Obama's Bush41-style encouragements to Libya's rebels:
"Qaddafi has lost legitimacy, must leave."
What has to happen to back it up? The French are the ones up for dealing with Gaddafi:
-- AJ @ 4:48pm 05-March - French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said his country was seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose a No Fly Zone in Libya.
Meanwhile: AJ @ 1.25am - Tanks manned by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fired on houses when they launched a fresh assault on the town of Az Zawiyah.
Gaddafi is using helicopters, jets and tanks. Same as Saddam in 1991.
We pay $14,344-per-income-tax-paying-household a year for the military-and-spies. What should Obama do in Libya ?
Despite ongoing slaughter, we had SecDef Gates up on Capital Hill Thursday
bemoaning that you have to shoot somebody to set up a No Fly Zone. Sounded like chicken it-shay Cheney in 1991.
Another historical example was Major General George McClellan in 1861 and the early parts of 1862. Talk about chicken it-shay.
Now days we pay $14,344-a-year per income-tax-paying household for war and spying. Is Obama going to do a Bush41/Cheney/McClellan or something going to happen ?
BTW: how's about a campaign to spend $2,500 per income-tax-paying-household for military-and-spying and take our chances ? We're paying more for this crap than we're paying for houses and cars.
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Al Jazeera :::
The situation in Libya is turning into mechanized slaughter, the worst of a civil war between mercenaries and untrained, unled rebels. AJ has this in the March 5th liveblog.
HERE
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1:12pm
Fresh airstrikes are targeting the oil port town of Ras Lanuf, which was taken over by anti-Gaddafi fighters yesterday, our correspondent reports - yet many of the opposition force has already pressed westwards to Bin Jawad - and even aim to seize Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte.
Speaking to our correspondent on the phone, we could hear lots of gunfire in the background. Residents and anti-Gaddafi fighters are not worried about the aerial raid, she reports, as a sandstorm has moved in, limiting pilots' visibility.
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12:12pm
Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, reporting from Benghazi, tells us the current situation is similar to the beginning of the war in the former Yugoslavia, with the momentum of the uprising starting to dwindle. However, he says:
"The difference here is that there are a lot of heavy weapons around - and many are in the hands of the opposition."
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11:41am
The national council declared in Benghazi will hold its first meeting today - but it will be held in secret, for fear of the long reach of Gaddafi's forces. A spokesman told AFP:
"It's a safety issue. This guy still assassinates people."
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11:26am
National Security Advisor to president Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski - who helped arm anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan from 1979 (at a reported cost of $20million a year, in one of the longest ever CIA covert operations) - believes the US should take a more active role in Libya. He spoke to Al Jazeera.
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11:06am
Dr Hamdi, a surgeon in Az Zawiyah hospital, is on the phone with Al Jazeera. He tells us of the scene around him:
"I am at the centre of Martyrs' Square. A large number of people are gathering in the centre, after they managed to push back Gaddafi's forces, the tanks have been pushed out of the city.
"There have been a number of tanks - the security forces of Gaddafi came into the city with armoured vehicles and tanks and trucks carrying antiaircraft wepons. We managed to capture two tanks, and a number of four-wheel drive military cars.
"I live in one of main roads of the city, but I couldn't leave home, because a large number of Gaddafi security men were shooting at anyone who came out.
"I couldn't go to the hospital. But when our courageous fighters pushed them back, I could get to the square and helped administer first aid.
"There are between 150-250 injured as of now.
"At this moment, there are no Gaddafi security forces in the city; they have all been pushed outside of the city. The revolutionaries have taken control and have pushed them to the outside of the city.
"There is news that the security forces are gathering and preparing for another attack; the revolutionaries are also preparing for another attack. About 10,000 revolutionaries are preparing for the attack, and they are all happy for what has been achieved so far today."
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10:38am
With Gaddafi fighting hard to regain control of cities lost to his control, people in Benghazi tell Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley they hope the international community will intervene.
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9:45am
Gaddafi forces are shelling the town of Az Zawiyah, 40km west of Tripoli, from tanks and the sea, eyewitnesses tell Al Jazeera. One resident tells us:
"With all the artillery, tanks and armoured vehicles, fierce fighting is ongoing and people are being massacred in a way that we haven't seen - even in Iraq.
"I consider it a total massacre."
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There is no shortage of video online depicting the use of heavy weapons by Gaddafi's forces.
And this of dozens:
Thirty year old weapons, no military chain of command, no field medical system. That's the Obama supported rebellion in Libya. Starts to sound like southern Iraq in 1991 ?
Meanwhile, SecDef Gates has been very efficient at spending $1,219,000-million dollars a year on everything from aircraft carriers to remote control aircraft -- which comes to an immodest $14,344-a-year from every income-tax-paying household in America.
But apparently, if we take Gates's testimony at face value, he wants to sit on hands in Libya. Obama could come out looking like Bush41 in 1991. Spend the money, get nothing back.
For $14,344-a-year, is this investment no more useful than the "AAA"-by-bribery "synthetic" investment counterfeits out of Goldman, Sachs ?