One Hell of a Humanitarian
Intervention.
30,000 Bombs Over Libya
September 05, 2011 --- After some 8,000 bombing raids, with estimates of 4
bombs used per attack NATO has already dropped over 30,000 bombs on Libya.
That’s almost 200 bombs per day for 6 months, some tens of thousands of tons of
high explosives. With an estimated 2 Libyans killed per bomb and without a
single NATO casualty the Western regimes have massacred over 60,000 Libyans in
the past half year with the rebels themselves having said there have been 50,000
Libyan deaths. One hell of a humanitarian intervention isn’t it?
How the “civil war” in Libya has proceeded can best be described in light of the
events of August 21. On that Sunday afternoon a BBC film crew showed a rebel
column fleeing the approaches to Zawiya outside of Tripoli. With their tales
between their legs, glancing fearfully over their shoulders as they fled wildly
back down the road from whence they came, even the BBC presstitute on the scene
could not contain his disgust at the sight. Once again the rebels had run into
stiff resistance and had shown their true mettle by fleeing the fight.
The next morning a France24 reporter recounted how later that Sunday night she
had accompanied these same rebels as they drove almost unopposed through Zawiya
into Green Square in the heart of Tripoli, this time passing row upon row of
bombed out still burning buildings.
This has been NATO’s war and while the world may not understand this, the Libyan
rebels certainly do.
A major problem for NATO and its Libyan Quisling League a.k.a the National
Transitional Council (NTC) is that most of rebel military is now under the
leadership the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a self described affiliate
of Al Queda in the Maghreb (North Africa). The “general” in command of the
mainly ethnic Berber rebel fighters that have captured the Libyan capital, known
as the Tripoli Military Council, is the head of the LIFG. One of his top
commanders is head of the Benghazi based rebel army. With the recent murder of
“General” Younnis, former head of the Libyan secret police and once considered
the most feared man in the country, the LIFG has now taken over leadership of
almost all of the most effective fighting forces of the Libyan rebellion.
Quite an accomplishment and Al Queda in the Maghreb’s sincere thanks must go to
the USA and its allies in NATO.
As the former LIFG terrorists turned “freedom fighters” go house to house
arresting and executing “Gaddafi supporters” and “African mercenaries” in
Tripoli life for the ordinary people of the city has become one of survival.
Without water for almost two weeks now, without cooking gas or fuel for their
cars and with food in short supply the future for the people of Tripoli remains
uncertain.
Some reports in the international media have claimed that the Great Man Made
River (GMMR), the irrigation system that supplies northern Libya with almost all
its water was bombed by NATO. Other reports claim that “Gaddafi loyalists” still
control the southern water wells and have shut off the water supply. If the
later is true then even Benghazi’s water supply is in jeopardy. In any case,
Tripoli is going to be dependent on imported water for quite some time and how a
city of almost 2 million is to survive using water imported via water trucks is
a question the western media has stopped talking about.
The “Transitional National Council” now recognized as “the legitimate government
of Libya” by NATO governments and their allies is made up of many former high
ranking Libyan Government officials and is increasingly caught in a tough spot.
With the African Union trying to block the release of Libyan Government funds
held in western banks there is little time to spare if this NTC’s control is to
remain in place.
South African President Jacob Zuma has condemned the NTC leaders as embezzlers
and demanded they return the tens of millions of dollars the NTC top leaderships
is charged with stealing during their days in office in the Libyan government
before the AU lifts its opposition to Gaddafi government funds being released to
the NTC.
NATO leaders are having to scramble to keep the NTC afloat. Images of pallets
stacked 6 feet high with 200 million Libyan Dinars flown in from London show
just how touch and go it has become for the NTC’s attempts to maintain its
influence. While NATO’s “Friends of LIbya” circus held in Paris promises the
release of Libya’s $billions held ransom by the west, implementing these
promises is another matter all together. Corruption and incompetence mark the
NTC leadership’s past and is will come as no surprise to hear reports of massive
embezzlement of these funds in the future
How much longer the LIFG/Al Queda lead rebel armies will stand by and allow
their former bitter enemies in the TNC to remain in power is the $60 billion
question. Already the rebel “government” in the port city of Misrata has
announced they do not recognize the authority of the TNC and rally’s demanding
the removal of the former Libyan government officials in the TNC have been
reported taking place on an almost daily basis there.
In the mean time the vast reaches of the southern Libyan desert has not been
conquered by NATO and almost all of Libya’s water and much of its oil remains
outside of the control of the NTC.
With hundreds of villages and small towns scattered across an immense area Col.
Gaddafi and his supporters still have a vast area at their disposal. With
Algeria fighting Al Queda in the Maghreb their border on Libya’s western flank
remains open and allows opponents of the NATO backed rebels a safe haven. The
NTC has already raised the alarm about a nasty long term insurrection based in
southern Libya using Algeria as base.
So far the Al Queda lead rebel fighters and the west’s bully boys in the NTC
have yet to begin to eat each other though it seems almost inevitable that
internal warfare amongst the rebels will take place. We may yet see NATO
warplanes bombing its erstwhile allies in the Libyan rebellion.
The one thing that is clear is that the Libyan Tragedy has just begun and that
the capture of most of northern Libya by the NATO backed rebels is just its
first phase. 30,000 bombs over Libya killing some 60,000 Libyans marks the
beginning rather than the end of this disaster.
Thomas C. Mountain was a member of the 1st US Peace Delegation to Libya in 1987
and is the only independent western journalist in the Horn of Africa, living and
reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain at yahoo
dot com.