a thread about the civil unrest in egypt (& elsewhere in 'the region' if necessary)

interesting diplomacy in this resolution. no outright hard-handed rebuke to gdfi. a form of words that don't explicitly support insurrection. no clear quid pro quo for actions that contravene expected behaviours.

it will be interesting to see what (and who) were the key players' contributions.

Not suggesting above that this is the end for Gaddafi, as the UN resolution wording seems to designed to deter Gaddafi from advancing past Ajdabiya, on some slim hope of a negotiated or de facto truce.

Gaddafi's troops also need a rest for maintenance and to bring up supplies, and Ajdabiya is the best place for that on the road to Benghazi. A halt would leave nearly all of Libya's oil and water infrastructure in his hands.

http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/ArtAndPhoto-Fronts/WORLD_NEWS/EVERGREEN/MIDEAST/Libya-biz-explainer/Libya-Oil-fields-and-pipelines.gif
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41462000/gif/_41462932_libya_water3_map416.gif

hopefully the Free French are still holding out at Bir Hacheim /wwII nerd

Yeah, its kinda interesting revisiting these place names from my cardboard general past. Rommel had two successful offensives staged out of El Aghelia 1941, 1942, and present day Al `Uqaylah/Bishr was just passed by Gaddafi's battalions on Monday.

^i played Afika Corps as a nipper. Rebels need 3-1 odds iirc

Afrika

That really was a terrible map:

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic674700_lg.jpg

My Western Desert game of choice was:

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic239377_md.jpg

had the civil war version of that second one

lol I think my dad had that game xp

Back to the modern day, large swaths of the off-road desert in Eastern Libya and Western Egypt are still considered impassible due to forgotten WWII era minefields. If the desert preserves them as well as mummies and the like the last victims of WWII ordinance may happen there, centuries from now.

41 casualties (half fatal) to Egyptian bedouin in 2009 alone.

In an interview broadcast just before the Security Council voted, Gadhafi dismissed its actions. "The U.N. Security Council has no mandate. We don't acknowledge their resolutions," he told the Portuguese public Radiotelevisao Portuguesa. He pledged to respond harshly to U.N.-sponsored attacks. "If the world is crazy, we will be crazy too," he said.

jesus

"If the world is crazy, we will be crazy too," he said.

― omar little, Friday, March 18, 2011 12:00 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark

like this is 100% nuts and horrible don't misunderstand but

kind of amazing

yeeeeeahhhhh...

total super villain stuff

like i'm just stunned by the sociopathic hubris of this motherfucker right here

From the Guardian:

There we are: Muammar Gaddafi threatens to "get crazy".

gaddafi is turning into pat o'brien

Guardian keeps it coming:

8.46pm ET: Canada, in a typical display of aggression, has already pledged six CF-18 fighter jets to help impose the no-fly zone in Libya.

So basically the world (via the UN) just declared war on Qaddafi, right? Because the second a plane enters Libyan territory, Qaddafi will order that plane shot at. And then what? Whomever is flying the plane will take offensive action. And by the way, who will be flying those planes on behalf of the UN?

further:

"Any foreign military act against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea to danger and civilian and military facilities will become targets of Libya's counter-attack."

dude is gonna get aced

been off the net for 12 whole hours and... dang. didn't really expect this.

So basically the world (via the UN) just declared war on Qaddafi, right? Because the second a plane enters Libyan territory, Qaddafi will order that plane shot at. And then what? Whomever is flying the plane will take offensive action. And by the way, who will be flying those planes on behalf of the UN?

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, March 18, 2011 12:57 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

ehh sort of but no. the US is not at war with pakistan, it just launches weapons into its territory. ditto somalia.

ehh sort of but no. the US is not at war with pakistan, it just launches weapons into its territory. ditto somalia.

you've gotta put some heavy scare quotes around "war" to make this statement anywhere near true

x-post Yeah, but the Pakistani army is not threatening to shoot down American planes, and we are there at the tacit, under the table invitation of the government. And there's no no-fly zone over Somalia, is there? Even Saddam didn't threaten to fight back, did he?

That said, if Qaddafi goes total war on the world, I put my money on the world. Though this does set an awkward precedent for the rest of the region, Arab League support or no.

Though this does set an awkward precedent for the rest of the region, Arab League support or no.

yeah i don't really understand how this works. dooooon't really see anyone telling saudi arabia to back off in bahrain.

^ the one time i will ever otm history mayne

take it back imo. it'd be pretty deep never to have been otm'd by BIG HOOS.

haha

That whole Gaddafi quote is o_0

""This is craziness, madness, arrogance. If the world gets crazy with us we will get crazy too.

"We will respond. We will make their lives hell because they are making our lives hell. They will never have peace."

http://www.noquickriches.com/storage/Gaddafi.jpg
If the world is crazy, we will be crazy too.
- 6.4 million people were under the sway of this man till one month ago

I do feel that image could use a bit of Z S magic.

clayface.jpg

that image is terrifying
he looks like he just completed White Castle's King of Beef challenge in record time

bobdylan.jpg

I tried to stitch it unto a Prince & the Revolution cover but gave up. My GIMP-fu is weak.

Shit I just had a weird deja vu.

http://www.aggrogate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/dejavu3.jpg

GUN1 indeed

when you again realize...it's DEJA VU!

That whole Gaddafi quote is o_0

""This is craziness, madness, arrogance. If the world gets crazy with us we will get crazy too.

― bad voise, it sucked, pick a seat (Trayce), Friday, March 18, 2011 2:55 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

who you tryin to get crazy with ese? don't you know I'm loco

One reason I hope this works is to prove guys like this wrong about Obama's strategy:

http://www.slate.com/id/2288595/

Because circumventing the UN worked out so well in Iraq.

I really don't understand what is going on here.

I have to assume that somebody in the_west has cut - or thinks they have cut - a deal with a player in Eastern Libya who they think will prove to be a more dependable spigot-warden than Ghadafi. I don't know.

From that Spitzer article:

The Arab League has passed a resolution supporting a no-fly zone. The French

have recognized the opposition government as the legitimate government of Libya and have spoken in favor of military action in support of the opposition.

Fuck off and die, creep.

Er-

The Arab League has passed a resolution supporting a no-fly zone. The French - the French - have recognized the opposition government as the legitimate government of Libya and have spoken in favor of military action in support of the opposition.

Like I said.

Heh, "spigot-warden".

again, not rly sure what you're getting at. any libyan government will depend on selling oil. it's part of opec. i guess it might leave opec? but why would it? what do you think the_west has to be scared of, viz libyan oil? that they'll stop selling it? i think the US has been trying to get a sense of who the rebels are and what they'll do, but again, why wouldn't they? it's a hell of a gamble, there's no democratic infrastructure there, and if the rebel leadership is able to capture popular resentment of gadaffi, it doesn't necessarily follow that it represents the popular will.

xpost

meanwhile, i dimly remember those far-away days of january when slavoj zizek was hymning the egyptian revolution. seems remarkably quiescent on the attempt to remove gadaffi. odd.

Well Iraq was part of OPEC too.