Gaddafi Forces Advance on Key Rebel Stronghold of Ajdabiya as Sandstorms Basically Ground NATO Planes

High winds and low visibility allow Tripoli 

to break out the rocket launchers while 

completely ignoring all UN resolutions

Military forces loyal to longtime Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi spent yesterday morning shelling Ajdabiya hard -the last major town before the rebels' Benghazi base- then advanced on the town's western gate while engaging the insurgents in brutal combat at close quarters...

Although the day before the rebels had advanced 100km further westward under substantial NATO air cover, just one day of low visibility had all that lost and then some. But while late Sunday afternoon pro-government forces had been repelled at Ajdabiya, the town's nervous citizens -fearing a pending Gaddafi offensive- began fleeing in vehicles on the main highway to Benghazi. At mid-day, the town was reported as deserted save for soldiers.

Sometimes these days rebels are spotted with NATO-supplied radio equipment and body armor, but unsettlingly -and after weeks of western involvement-  troops at the front still appear to be woefully short of not just new weapons, but ammunition for what junk they do have... and even food.

Government forces also continued to pound the besieged port city of Misrata, the only rebel holdout in the Gaddafi-controlled west. Sadly, the city reports 1000+ dead from the shelling NATO said they were there to put a stop to. That's what happens when you're dealing (ineffectively) with a guy happy to use cluster bombs on his own civilians.

Along with officially-promoted brutality and total lack of mercy, Gaddafi's forces continue to display a far higher level of professionalism on the battlefield as they repeatedly outflank the rag-tag opponents... a bunch wholly unable to coordinate even the most basic maneuver warfare, and ironically on the very same soil where Rommel perfected the craft.

Here's the Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution parading through Tripoli in an open-top car over the weekend... maybe it's just me, but he doesn't really seem to be paying any mind to Obama's empty threats and hollow platitudes.

Rather, he's having a grand old time, blowing thousands to bits while rolling though Tripoli like the G-thug that he is... Lil' Wayne eat your heart out, you tattooed gargoyle lol:
 

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Obam's Razor: "What's the Most RADICAL Explanation for Recent US Action in Libya?"

WWII Germany's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was widely despised in diplomatic circles as well as by many leading Nazis of the day. Most considered him a vain, ill-mannered, unintelligent opportunist: Benito Mussolini's FM Count Ciano quipped "You only have to look at the shape of his head to see that he has a small brain."

Yet the charmless dullard was a favorite of Hitler's... and for one simple reason: the Fuhrer always looked well upon those who proposed the most radical solution to a given problem, even if not adopted as policy: Ribbentrop deduced this early-on, and exploited it to the fullest. Seems the boss had major transformations to bring about, and with some sense of urgency...

Today in 2011 America, political observers struggle mightily to get a grip on the fuzzy logic and towering hypocrisy in Obama purporting he was compelled to attack government assets in Libya -even if producing a stalemate insufficient to remove Gaddafi from power- in order to spare civilian lives and "Mosques"... yeah, he said that.

Moving to protect the lives of Egyptians, Kurds, Iranians, Yemenis, Syrians, Bahrainis, or any oppressed Christians and their burning churches throughout the perpetually-barbaric Middle East is different, somehow... if you're left standing there scritching yer cranium, you're surely not the only one.

But much as Occams' Razor instructs us to follow the most simple/obvious explanation to any mystery -that which assumes the least, positive or negative- let us apply Obam's Razor -'what's the most radical explanation'- to bring forth some needed  answers regarding recent US bombing of Libyan government forces. 

As for minimizing "assumptions", no worries: after watching this power-drunk regime shred American society for two years straight now, anybody with a pulse and at least one functioning eye and/or ear can tell you that extending Team Obama the benefit of the doubt is assuming way, way too much- odds far better on the dark side.

For example, what's the most sinister Leftist rationale imaginable for the Dems' insane 2008-2009 federal spending orgy? Seems only the most radical squares with reality: a stealth Cloward-Piven strategy. Sadly, much like 1940's Germany, America now finds itself saddled with our own racially-obsessed, narcissistic megalomaniac... and he's trying to ram-through sweeping changes in a real big rush, too.

Monday I found myself in rare agreement with Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) on matters of foreign policy when he said "we don't know who these people are" in Benghazi.

But does Obama? If he does, is he quietly supporting Islamist forces while he schmoozes political donors and scarfs still more lobster in Manhattan?

And are war supporters Bill Kristol and John Kerry really this naive...?

The Spectator (UK)

The unsettling truth is that the rebel leadership is dubious at best- and with this habitually dishonest White House now admitting they've detected "flickers" of an Al Qaeda presence in Libya... what's the reality?  

What if Gaddafi is right when he asserts AQ has had a significant hand in the uprising?  The head of NATO seems to think so- maybe it's a good thing the Devil-We-Know is still chasing them off the battlefield until we find out just what -and who- we're bargaining for here.

IMHO, it is possible if not probable that AQ are there, and it's hard to imagine US intelligence -and thus the President- not knowing it: Al Qaeda publicly endorsed the rebels, and reportedly already made off with a jackpot of Libyan surface-to-air missiles in the opening days of the uprising (but that's cool, now that we're on the same side and all...)

Is Obama aiding and abetting a stealth 
Islamist agenda in the Middle East? 

Just look at how it's going down- and you tell me:

-Filanofiles

"Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs were not consulted... 

but the Arab League was."

"Mosques destroyed," the president said, supported his argument for air strikes. Churches are being destroyed daily in the Muslim world, but the U.S. does not intervene...

As a senator, Barack Obama had no interest in preventing Saddam Hussein from filling mass graves. He vocally opposed our going into Iraq. That was then...

It is surely laudable for the U.S. to stand against massacres. Now, however, it seems that the leader of the Libyan rebels is one who fought against the U.S. in Afghanistan. Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi was taken prisoner in Pakistan. He also recruited two dozen jihadis to fight the Americans in Iraq...

Should we be supporting people who have Americans' blood on their hands? Intelligence estimates tell us that nearly one in five of the jihadis we fought against in Iraq came from Libya.

President Obama's speech to the nation raised as many questions as it answered. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs were not consulted, but the Arab League was. 

So was the UN. This is the same UN that applauded Gaddafi's wild rants in New York just last fall. It is the same body that elected Libya to its Human Rights Council....

It was surely shocking to millions of Americans when Barack Obama bowed to Saudi King Abdullah. 

Even more shocking, however, was Mr. Obama's selection of Egypt's Al Azhar Mosque as the venue for his 2009 speech to what he called "the Muslim world." The Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, says Dr. Zuhdi Jassser, a moderate American Muslim, "has served as a platform for 'Islamism' around the world, hatching the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 20th century."

So now we have a U.S. intervention in Libya that can only benefit rebels with known ties to jihadists and whose leaders have killed Americans. This all comes from an administration that refuses even to mention radical Islam as a possible threat to our nation...

-American Thinker-

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Desperate Libyan Rebels Beg Dithering West to Assassinate Muammar Gaddafi

Way too late for a no-fly zone to do anybody any good:

"...we are disappointed with the US 
for not exercising leadership"

-Malta Times-

The Libyan opposition -back on their heels as pro-Gaddafi forces consolidate fresh gains in what was rebel-controlled territory in the east- has been reduced to pleading for a targeted strike on Gaddafi's residential compound, ala Ronald Reagan 1986...

Seems they realize that in the unlikely event of Beijing and the Kremlin actually approving a UN NFZ, it's not going to have the desired effect on the outcome now... the rebels need a lot deeper intervention than that, but they're never going to get it:

Libya's revolutionary leadership is pressing western powers to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi and launch military strikes against his forces to protect rebel-held cities from the threat of bloody assault.

Mustafa Gheriani, spokesman for the revolutionary national council in its stronghold of Benghazi, said the appeal was to be made by a delegation meeting the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in Paris on Monday, as G8 foreign ministers gathered there to consider whether to back French and British calls for a no-fly zone over Libya.

"We are telling the west we want a no-fly zone, we want tactical strikes against those tanks and rockets that are being used against us and we want a strike against Gaddafi's compound," said Gheriani. "This is the message from our delegation in Europe."

Asked if that meant that the revolutionary council wanted the west to assassinate Gaddafi, Gheriani replied: "Why not? If he dies, nobody will shed a tear." 

Alas, as the regime's tanks, artillery, and fighter jets make quick work of the rebels, the US has come out far less hawkish than the British and French... and they haven't gotten the already-useless NFZ proposal anywhere near a Security Council vote anyway:

On the other hand -although the rebel stronghold of Benghazi lies just 150 mi from the front lines now and appears militarily threatened- Gaddafi's forces would face a difficult type of urban warfare there and likely take significant casualties, something altogether different from their chasing disorganized and outgunned rebels across the desert. 

Additionally -with pro-regime supply lines stretched- the Libyan opposition will be defending their own homes and families. Rebel morale is holding up from most accounts, with Radio Behghazi even broadcasting a special Libyan rebel-rap song to the soldiers at the front. They've got an experienced new commander who recently defected from the Libyan Army, too- reportedly he's bringing 8000 men and some heavy weapons with him.

But that doesn't mean they're not scared in Benghazi: all in Libya know the life expectancy of any enemy-of-Gaddafi-now-at-his-mercy can be measured in minutes. And the guy's as twisted a sadist as you could imagine: in 1984 the Brotherly Leader scheduled the "trial" of a peaceful political protester -a respected engineer- in a basketball arena filled with Libyan schoolchildren: instead of a trial, the gallows were unveiled and he was promptly hanged...Gaddafi watched back home on live TV.

Most expect a horrendously bloody fight followed by battlefield massacres/mass executions if Benghazi falls: think Rwanda and you'll have some idea of what to expect from this vengeful, soulless monster: recall that both Gaddafi and son Saif have been promising "rivers of blood" right from the start...

Al Jazeera's correspondent in the capital Tripoli said the (amnesty) offer will play on very anxious rebel forces who don't know how they will be able to put up a fight against Gaddafi's forces, given the overwhelming superiority of his military forces.

"There is an enormous degree of anxiety. It's an all or nothing game now," Anita McNaught said.

"If the rebels do not manage to hold out against Gaddafi and establish some kind of protective zone in the east of the country, it is almost certain in the wake of this there would be some dreadful purge of those who dared to raise their hands against the Gaddafi administration.

"People know that unless they are able to keep Tripoli at bay, that the alternative is almost too awful to contemplate. Those fears apply equally in Tripoli; they are just not expressed as openly as they are in the east."

-Reuters-

So how has Obama's inaction -while the rebels he claimed to support are cut to ribbons- gone over in Benghazi?

Rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani says that Obama's empty rhetoric -which created huge false expectations- will be causing the west problems in the future:

...Libyans are also increasingly vocal in their criticism of Washington in particular for what is seen as a failure to back up rhetoric against the regime. 

However, Gheriani said that if the west failed to offer practical help to the revolutionaries to free themselves from Gaddafi's rule it risked frustrated Libyans turning to religious extremists.

"The west is missing the point. The revolution was started because people were feeling despair from poverty, from oppression. Their last hope was freedom. If the west takes too long – where people say it's too little, too late – then people become a target for extremists who say the west doesn't care about them," he said.

"Most people in this country are moderates and extremists have not been able to penetrate them. But if they get to the point of disillusionment with the west there will be no going back."

And democracy advocates never had any real choice but fight, according to former Libyan minister Ali Errishi:

We are frustrated, the UN should live up to its moral and legal obligations, and do what is right, we are disappointed with the US for not exercising leadership.

People went out to demonstrate peacefully, they were then faced with bullets and with air bombardment. We had to defend ourselves. This fight has been imposed upon us.

The Libyan people made up their mind, it is either victory or death, the rest of the world should know, that there is no room for negations because the other side left no room for negotiations...

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Could Gaddafi Still Win...?

Perhaps the better question is: 

"can rag-tag rebels take Tripoli anytime soon?"

He's lost 3/4 of Libyan territory... army desertions rampant... international community now attempting to employ the stage-hook... so how's the 'mad dog of the Middle East'
still hanging on? 

First, there's a real reason the Libyan Army can't solve this all as cleanly as was done in Egypt: distrusting military officers like himself who possess the desire -and ability- to stage coups,
Col Gaddafi long ago emasculated his own army, rendering them largely unable to topple him.  They possess the oldest weapons, have limited intelligence capabilities, and number a mere 50,000 men. This brings the dawning realization of what Gaddafi meant last week by "this is not Egypt, this is not Tunisia." 

And while many have been encouraged by pictures of soldiers joining up with the protesters, defections to this point have been along tribal lines- not something entirely unexpected. The fact is that there's simply no unitary, disciplined military force in Libya today with the ablity to quickly push Gaddafi aside...

The Air Force is a bit more impressive and loyal than the ground troops, and outside of a couple well-publicized defections, most of them have shown no compunction whatsoever in buzzing, bombing, strafing civilian protesters on the orders of the Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution (brothers can be cruel... but this is something else).

And Col Gaddafi has clearly been planning for this eventuality for decades... all the pieces are in place: support now comes from fiercely loyal militias and armed "revolutionary committees" who are -as the last line of defense- sworn to Gaddafi and/or his sons personally, as well as co-opted tribes and black African mercenaries. All these parties have a large personal stake in the outcome and are willing to kill almost anyone to protect it. This motivation also applies to the foreign fighters...there's surely little good waiting for them back in Chad. 

At the vanguard of pro-Gaddafi forces is 5th son Khamis Gaddafi and his crack special forces unit, one that's already played a large part in putting down unrest in the capitol- and in the most ruthless fashion imaginable. Khamis Gaddafi is cut from a different cloth than his international playboy brothers: trained at a top Russian military academy, he's the one who hired black African mercenaries who really don't mind shooting Libyans... unlike many of the army regulars. 

Alas, Moammar Gaddafi himself has got little to lose at this point: after unleashing air power and even naval shelling upon protesters, he surely faces war crimes charges at The Hague... provided that he even makes it out of the country alive. It's now down to kill or be killed... a no-brainer for a bloodthirsty megalomaniac like this one. 

Both the old man and his son/spokesman Saif al-Islam have stated publicly that they'll fight to the death, with "rivers of blood", etc.- and I believe them. How much of the country they drag into the abyss -or if Gaddafi manages to turn the tide- is most of what remains in doubt. 

Actually, some experts see Gaddafi already winning. And if not, he'll arm allied tribes if he has to... likely leading to a bloody civil war. Seems logical to expect some sort of Gaddafi military offensive in the coming week, before any aid reaches the rebellious east.

And hey, it's not like he doesn't have any friends left...

On the rebel side, things have gone quite well to this point, and they've even been pledged US support over the weekend. What a shame it is that the kiss-of-death has arrived in the form of an Obama endorsement. I sure hope they're not aware of the implications in that- guy sure knows how to pick a loser.

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Colonel Gaddafi ON THE RUN: 'Mad Dog of the Middle East' Reportedly Flees Tripoli...

Libya's second city Benghazi
appears lost as troops retreat

Daily Mail (UK)-

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is believed to have fled the capital Tripoli after anti-government demonstrators breached the state television building and set government property alight.

Protesters appear to have gained a foothold in Tripoli as banks and government buildings were looted while demonstrators have claimed they have taken control of the second city Benghazi.

It is thought up to 400 people may have died in the unrest with dozens more reported killed in Tripoli overnight as protests reached the capital for the first time and army units were said to have defected to the opposition.

Pressure is building on the deranged terrorist nut Reagan famously called "the mad dog of the Middle East": with reports of 350+ dead, the military retreating to their compounds, mystery Libyan jets landing in Malta, and today the Justice Minister -for one- resigning in protest of Gaddafi's murderous hand.

This video has been snuck out of Benghazi, which reportedly just fell to anti-Gaddafi forces...

Expanded coverage/photos at The Daily Mail (UK)


UPDATE: Gaddafi appears briefly on Libyan TV in an attempt to dispel the rumor that he has fled... -here-

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