Getting better, but still a Charlie Foxtrot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsMWvg2NDaU[/URL]
Getting better, but still a Charlie Foxtrot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsMWvg2NDaU[/URL]
A scrimmage in a Border Station
A canter down some dark defile
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail
http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg
Their military skills may be severely lacking, but the video needs to be seen in perspective.Originally Posted by AdamG
That's Misrata. Those folks--most of them civilians--are completely surrounded, but have been holding off 3-4 brigades of Qaddafi loyalists for over seven weeks with scrounged weapons and supplies. In many ways, its damned impressive.
They mostly come at night. Mostly.
- university webpage: McGill University
- conflict simulations webpage: PaxSims
I don't know if I can frame this properly but looking at these videos and reading various stories, it appears as if there are some high quality people amongst the rebels. You read of this guy being a PHD and this other guy being a former fighter pilot etc. Also it appears that the population of Misrata itself is the rebel force so that may include a representative group of people which would include some fairly accomplished guys, merchants, small businessmen plus older guys. If this is true, would that make up somewhat for their total lack of training, especially when they are defending built up areas? To my tyro mind, it seems as if it might, especially as time goes on and they learn.
"We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene
Well spotted. Misrata is arguably the most educated (and highest income) city in Libya, and the rebels do seem to have shown some innovation over time. Plus you've got to cheer for a city where the rebels strum Green Day tunes.
They mostly come at night. Mostly.
- university webpage: McGill University
- conflict simulations webpage: PaxSims
Lost in Libya: The U.K. Does Not Understand Strategy
Lost in Libya: The U.K. Does Not Understand Strategy
Entry Excerpt:
Lost in Libya: The U.K. Does Not Understand Strategy by Dr. Patrick Porter, Infinity Journal (free registration required). BLUF: "The limited war of 2011 would refuse to be quarantined. After all other options were exhausted, it could culminate in a land war against Tripoli. Distressingly, we would shoulder the burden of invading, pacifying and administering this country. Occupation would probably lead to resistance – and Libya propelled more foreign-born jihadi volunteers into Iraq than any other nation. A new front in the War on Terror would open up. Idealists now calling for humanitarian rescue would discover that all along they opposed Western imperial hubris."
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Boots on the Ground in Libya
Boots on the Ground in Libya
Entry Excerpt:
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik (Ret.), a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War, argues that "the Obama administration should prepare for the inevitable in Libya. To win this fight and prevent a coming anarchy, it's going to take a lot more than a no-fly zone." See his latest article, Boots on the Ground, at Foreign Policy.
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‘Boots on the ground’ to Libya
‘Boots on the ground’ to Libya
Entry Excerpt:
According to the BBC, British Foreign Secretary William Hague just announced that Britain will send 10 soldiers to Benghazi to assist Libya’s rebels with logistics, intelligence, and training. This announcement followed a plea from the chairman of France’s foreign affairs committee to send French commandos to Libya to direct NATO air strikes against Qaddafi’s forces.
In another surprising, if odd, development, Reuters is reporting that the European Union has developed a provisional plan to deploy a European military expeditionary force to Misrata, if requested by the United Nations. The mission of the expedition would be to protect aid deliveries to the city, which is currently under siege by pro-Qaddafi forces. What is odd is that according to Reuters, all 27 EU states endorsed this potential mission. Germany, which abstained during the UN vote authorizing military action in Libya and has refused to participate in the current NATO operation, might now be volunteering the Bundeswehr for a trip to the frontline in Misrata.
Each time a setback has occurred in Libya, the West has responded with military escalation. The arrival of Western journalists in Misrata is undoubtedly creating pressure on NATO's political leaders to take additional steps against Qaddafi’s forces.
President Obama and his team are trying to simultaneously be good allies while also strictly limiting the U.S. military commitment. The Obama team must he stunned that NATO is struggling to achieve military effects against the rump of Libya controlled by Qaddafi. Britain and France are rumored to be running out of precision bomb guidance kits.
Libya’s rebels have counted on a bailout from NATO. Europe may similarly be counting on a military bailout from the United States. Is NATO’s operation in Libya too big to fail?
Nothing follows.
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‘Restrepo’ Director Killed in Libya
‘Restrepo’ Director Killed in Libya
Entry Excerpt:
‘Restrepo’ Director Is Killed in Libya - C. J. Chivers, New York Times. BLUF: "Tim Hetherington, the conflict photographer who was a director and producer of the film “Restrepo,” was killed in the besieged city of Misurata on Wednesday, and three photographers working beside him were wounded."
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This Week at War: Billions for Libya?
This Week at War: Billions for Libya?
Entry Excerpt:
Is NATO willing to pay what it will cost to take out Qaddafi?
Here is the latest edition of my column at Foreign Policy:
Topics include:
1) The cost of getting serious in Libya
2) Mexico's drug cartels try to control the message -- and spark a media insurgency
The cost of getting serious in Libya
A pattern has emerged in the Libyan conflict. Every setback to the rebels' prospects has resulted in an escalation of military activity by NATO. The alliance's initial intervention five weeks ago began when a powerful pro-Qaddafi armored column approached Benghazi, the rebel capital. This week, nasty house-to-house fighting in Misrata compelled Britain, France, and Italy to each send about ten military advisors to Benghazi. President Barack Obama did his part this week when he dispatched two Predator drones to Libya's skies. The NATO advisors sent to Benghazi are the vanguard of what is likely to be many more Western "boots on the ground" in Libya.
It is now clear that the Western policymakers who opted for intervention in Libya underestimated the resilience and adaptability of Qaddafi's military forces. These Western leaders -- perhaps led astray by the apparent ease with which air power alone compelled Serb leaders in Belgrade to abandon Kosovo in 1999 -- similarly overestimated what air power could accomplish against Qaddafi. The result is, at best, a military stalemate, assuming Misrata can hold out.
Libya's rebels, now openly supported by NATO, are far from accomplishing the de facto objective of the campaign, the removal of the Qaddafi family from Libya. The rebels and Western leaders had hoped that Qaddafi would quickly flee or be overthrown by a palace coup or an uprising in Tripoli. These may yet occur. But hoping for them is not a strategy. If anything, a month of combat has toughened Qaddafi's troops and his remaining inner circle. With Western prestige now heavily committed, what will it actually take to get rid of Qaddafi?
Assuming that Western leaders have ruled out a ground invasion of Libya, the only other course of action around which NATO can build a campaign plan is to prepare the rebel forces in Benghazi for the long march down the coast road to Tripoli. Such a course of action will provide NATO with an organizing concept and give the alliance the initiative. Anything less is just hoping for the best.
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NATO After Libya
NATO After Libya
Entry Excerpt:
NATO After Libya: The Atlantic Alliance in Austere Times by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Foreign Affairs. BLUF: "The economic challenges that European nations face are immense, but that must not prevent them from seeing the wider strategic picture. Uncoordinated defense cuts could jeopardize the continent's future security. Libya can act as a wake-up call, but this mission needs to be followed by deeds."
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Ode to NATO’s Fiscal Farce in Libya
Ode to NATO’s Fiscal Farce in Libya
Entry Excerpt:
Ode to NATO’s Fiscal Farce in Libya
by Jim Egan
Is it not unconscionable that the US, UK & French military
have failed in 100 days and £400m to route Col. Gaddafi?
There are ways to prompt him to flee,
And end his strange reign of tyranny.
In a previous life Jim Egan served on staffs on Capitol Hill, at a Pentagon software contractor, and in the White House. Today he is a technologist active in digital futures initiatives that can influence the emotions, brand loyalties and discretionary spending patterns of 100m-sized online audiences.
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I'm constantly amazed by westerners and their inability to understand what is a very simple concept: keep out of the affairs of other nations.
Libya is neither an enemy of the United States nor is it a threat to Europe and North America.
As a Muslim, I deeply admire the ability of Americans to taking care of their children, having stable careers and zero civil disorder within your state. I wish all Muslim and Arab states have healthy trading relations and relative peace with one another. I am, however, disgusted by the constant need to interfere either in the name of "peacekeeping" or "regime-change". Call it what you will. It's breaching the sovereignty of our nations.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia... when the hell does this end? al-Qaeda attacked you on 9/11, not the entire Muslim community.
It's about time these conflicts end and peace prevails.
P.S. In case someone accuses me of being a "closet Jihadi", I equally hate it when countries tell Israel to freeze building settlements or how it should defend itself. It's their domestic policy, none of anyone's business.
And I am amazed that you think this is a problem only with westerners.
Uh, where did I say that? Western intervention has been the most blatant form of intervention in the last 15-20 years, which is why I mentioned it. Any form of military intervention in a sovereign state is heinous.
Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya... for the love of God, if you don't have any respect for the "enemies'" dead, at least have some respect for your own.
Why? Why should sovereignty trump everything else, including human rights?
I have little doubt that a majority of Libyans welcome external support for their effort to overthrow the Qaddafi dictatorship. Indeed, if anything, their primary complaint at present seems to be that NATO isn't doing enough.
They mostly come at night. Mostly.
- university webpage: McGill University
- conflict simulations webpage: PaxSims
You're right. Why do we even have borders? Let's get rid of those as well.
Surely only a nation governed by the will of the people can be considered sovereign.
For example (and using the Democracy Index) there are 26 full democracies whose sovereignty should be respected to the fullest extent (unless they invade a neighbour or some other action such as this).
One should display some patience and tolerance towards the 53 flawed democracies .
While the 32hybrid regimes and the 56 authoritarian regimes should not be recognised as sovereign states (unless you need their oil)
Not everything should be negotiable.
Lessons for Libya: Law Enforcement from Day Zero
Lessons for Libya: Law Enforcement from Day Zero
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This Week at War: Talking Time in Libya
This Week at War: Talking Time in Libya
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