Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
Cannoneer,

Easy big guy, not calling you racist, rather just pointing out that your observation is one that is commonly made of certain groups based upon the perceptions those outside the group in question. While a satisfactory brand of "liberty" for an average Libyan is likely quite different than for the average American the critical issue is that there is a universal quest in alll mankind for whatever it is they see as meeting that mark.
It is the unsatisfactory brand of liberty they have a nasty habit of taking that concerns me.

It is no less arrogant and condescending to assume that an Arab doesn't understand what liberty is today than it was for some southerner to assume that African Americans wouldn't know what to do if they were freed from slavery.
Not going there. Google "Reconstruction"

But yeah, I do want to "kill you message" if your message is that Libyans wouldn't know what to do with liberty if they had it. One has to assume that the current rebels come from a cross-section of the populace. Some are looking for loot, some for power, most simply to achieve what they have no legal peaceful means the achieve. One should also assume that there are agents representing Islamist groups seeking to gain an advantage. I would assume there are a variety of national agents at work as well. All seeking to advance the interests of their respective organizations..
My message is that the anti-KaDaffy forces are not necessarily Good Guys. One does NOT have to assume that the current rebels come from a cross-section of the populace. Didn't they tell you what happens when you assume? The rebels are more deeply aggrieved, more actively hostile, more violent than the fence-sitters. Some of them were trying to kill me in Iraq four years ago.

Have we identified those factions that we would prefer did not gain the greatest influence, or do we provide close air support for whoever is fixing to get whipped? Does the whole coalition support and blacklist the same factions? How does a faction get off the excrement list and become eligible for CAS & air drops & all the material benefits of being a valued tool of the Great Satan?