The jasmine revolution spreads?

[silentWitness]

When your weapons are dulled, your ardour damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

[Observe]

When your weapons are dulled, your ardour damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

True. Which is why even the most peace-loving pacifist society must have good defensive capability to protect from those less peace-loving.

[silentWitness]

When your weapons are dulled, your ardour damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

True. Which is why even the most peace-loving pacifist society must have good defensive capability to protect from those less peace-loving.

True. We are our own worst enemies. Killing each other over X2 sagt Bussi auf Bauch words and flights of fantasy. Ultimately we have achieved very little where as the society you mention would unite humanity.

[amtct]

Also: Yo, amtct, what kind of frigate is that frigate? Is it an M6, an M7, an M7M or an Ion Frigate, like in Homeworld? Is it Gadhafi's Nemesis? LOLZ (still...)

Its not ready yet ...they have to fix it .It will be ready in a month (don't laugh ,I think it was bought from UK )

And when you think that ground forces have American weapons ,cars and stuffs (from donations ofcourse ) .Some sailors must be really pissed now

Seriously ,not funny ,our best defence is the NATO base here .Thanks God we have few foreign soldiers (US and British) at that base

[BeidAmmikon]

It is interesting to note that Mr. Buchanan insinuated in his article that Libyan protesters were Al Quada members (which in US these days is "I WIN" tactic in debates ) which makes him guilty of the tactics you accuse us of.

He must've known something "we" didn't... How inconvenient, no?

[Warenwolf]

Because Al Quada is hostile to Gaddafi and urges his enemies to preserve in their fight against him, protesters are terrorists?

OK... I have no comment to that.

[Usenko]

All dogs have four legs.
My cat has four legs.
Therefore my cat is a dog.

Quadaffi has a number of dogs that go "meow". . . .

[BeidAmmikon]

One more servant (The People say) must be packing his luggage now.

Exhortation Of The Day:
On peut resister a l'invasion d'une armee, mais pas a celle d'une idee dont le temps est venu.
No army can stop an idea whose time has come.

[silentWitness]

I have found the video clip I have been looking for!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Eg8F3rap4

He says it very well.

[Shock223]

I have found the video clip I have been looking for!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Eg8F3rap4

He says it very well.

here is a better version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePSqOsMskWQ

[Warenwolf]

I guess most people have heard about Iman al-Obeidi by now:

A news report about the event

The entire thing took the Libyan regime off guard:

At a press-conference held later on the same day, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said that investigators had found al-Obeidi "drunk and possibly mentally challenged"

(...)

Being pressed by reporters to be allowed to interview her, Ibrahim admitted that she was found to be sane.

[felter]

I guess most people have heard about Iman al-Obeidi by now:

A news report about the event

The entire thing took the Libyan regime off guard:

At a press-conference held later on the same day, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said that investigators had found al-Obeidi "drunk and possibly mentally challenged"

(...)

Being pressed by reporters to be allowed to interview her, Ibrahim admitted that she was found to be sane.

The reaction and response to Iman al-Obeidi's outburst, says a lot more than her outburst ever could. I just hope she is all right but I doubt it.

[brucewarren]

I'm now completely confused.

The BBC are reporting that NATO has taken control of the military operation
in Libya.

Is this simply a merging of commands to increase efficiency or something
deeper going on here?

I hope they are not going to make Libya a NATO protectorate now.

[CBJ]

There's nothing particularly "deep" going on. The US took the military command during the initial strikes, presumably because it was providing much of the missile firepower for those strikes. But it doesn't want to be seen to be taking the lead in yet another war in the region even with a UN remit, so it had to find someone else to take over that command fairly quickly. NATO has picked that up.

[Dragoongfa]

I'm now completely confused.

The BBC are reporting that NATO has taken control of the military operation
in Libya.

Is this simply a merging of commands to increase efficiency or something
deeper going on here?

I hope they are not going to make Libya a NATO protectorate now.

NATO has the military command but the political command still rests with the coalition that includes the Arab states with France as the prime speaker.

The military command is the No-fly zone and the naval blockade, political command is an other game entirely.

As for efficiency, that's more or less correct, NATO is the only institution which has the capabilities for cross country cooperation and multiple air and naval bases in the area. Although from what I have understood only the forces of the nations that are willing to participate will actually send fighters to bomb Libyan targets, the other NATO members will just provide logistical support and ships for the naval blockade.

[Alee Enn]

and now Syria http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20110327/twl ... f21e0.html

shifty powers, you made a good call in starting this thread, the number of countries that protest over democracy one after the over keeps growing.

[philip_hughes]

Yes... I don't think its democracy thats the thing here, its just bad government in general.

[amtct]

shifty powers, you made a good call in starting this thread, the number of countries that protest over democracy one after the over keeps growing.

If it would be about democracy we'd have to have a riot in every European country

[Aye Capn]

Libya's a cluster ... headache.
Nobody agrees on the objectives, nobody wants to own the outcome, and the one person who should be taking charge is using the exercise as a demonstration of the "right" way to participate in an international coalition instead of focusing on Libya itself. Libya shouldn't be a case-study for international cooperation; international cooperation should instead be viewed as a tool to achieve a positive outcome for Libya. Obama's priorities are reversed.

However, assuming the rebels aren't completely crushed in the meantime, we'll eventually get our act together and finish what the UN, NATO, and the Arab League started, simply because our credibility is on the line in a way no one else's is, and it was on the line the moment we threw our hat into the ring.

Obama's best case scenario is if NATO's command and control shapes up -- or we assume behind-the-scenes command while NATO claims a "supervisory" fig leaf. In that situation Obama gets what he wants -- a way to distinguish himself from Bush -- and Libyan rebels actually get useful assistance.
NATO has so much to lose if they screw this up I half expect them to get their act together and fix their command-and-control problems. If they don't it makes NATO look irrelevant, unnecessary, and by that measure illegitimate.
I trust in the politicians' powers of self-preservation enough to give NATO even odds.

[xalien]

Here's another point of view, far more convincing than a pathetic excuse about saving civilians.

Then I'm still waiting on how this is going to unfold.

Ahh, the priorities of libyan rebels.