Qaddafi Forces Near Benghazi as Rebel Says World ‘Failed Us’

The reward for a failed rebellion will all too soon be levied upon the Libyan heroes of 2011 even as the world watches. Prepare yourselves.

Excerpted from “Qaddafi Forces Near Benghazi as Rebel Says World ‘Failed Us’” By Ola Galal, Bloomberg, Mar 15, 2011 4:58 PM PT
[SIZE="+2"]M[/SIZE]uammar Qaddafi set his sights on Benghazi as his forces moved into the gateway city of Ajdabiya, 100 miles from the rebel capital, and prospects faded for a NATO-led no-fly zone to hinder their advance.

The embattled Libyan dictator, appearing with small group of supporters on state-run television, vowed to fight rebel “rats” and said “we are going to destroy them.” In Benghazi, hundreds of his opponents, watching the broadcast projected on the side of a building, jeered and threw shoes in disrespect, according to a live video feed shown by al-Jazeera.

The Libyan army is “coming to secure Benghazi,” state-run television said. Pro-Qaddafi forces attacked on two sides of Ajdabiya using airstrikes and artillery, forcing out-gunned rebels and civilians to flee ahead of troops in tanks and personnel carriers, the Associated Press reported. There were conflicting reports on who controlled the city after nightfall. …

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The rebels are still getting lots of high-value defections from Gaddafi's army, and there is serious chatter that Egypt may invade Libya to help the rebels depose Gaddafi. Although the last few days have seen some setbacks for the rebels, I don't think this is over yet, and the momentum may already be swinging back to the rebels.

Rumor on Twitter has it that a few hours ago a pilot defected, and kamikazed his plane into the Gaddafi compound. One of Gaddafi's sons, Khamis, is reported to be in critical condition.

EDIT: Saadi Gadaffi also reported to be hospitalized for burns.

Tanks and artillery can still move under a no fly zone, and tanks and artillery are a force a bunch of angry men with AK-47s, old shotguns, sticks and stones can't face down.

If Obama was not going to help the Rebels ha should have kept his damn mouth shut.

Now the death to;; is going to huge in the end without some kind of outside support.

Councilman said:

If Obama was not going to help the Rebels ha should have kept his damn mouth shut.

Now the death to;; is going to huge in the end without some kind of outside support.

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So all those times you criticized him for not speaking out sooner was just for laughs?

Chappy said:

“The international community has failed us.” — Ahmed Omar, a rebel army commander​

The reward for a failed rebellion will all too soon be levied upon the Libyan heroes of 2011 even as the world watches. Prepare yourselves.

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This is the MSM forum, you're suppose to include commentary.

Kandahar said:

The rebels are still getting lots of high-value defections from Gaddafi's army, and there is serious chatter that Egypt may invade Libya to help the rebels depose Gaddafi. Although the last few days have seen some setbacks for the rebels, I don't think this is over yet, and the momentum may already be swinging back to the rebels.

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Both sides have engaged in massive disinformation. Egypt, which is undergoing a delicate political transition, is not going to intervene militarily in Libya, except if some limited operations might be required to rescue Egyptians. The Arab League, with large interests, chose a hollow declaration to which it won't commit even a single air asset. It won't do so, almost certainly because it recognizes that the revolution is not broadly supported and what follows, should it succeed, might be chaos that could well spill into neighboring countries, some of which are undergoing their own political transitions and are more fragile than usual.

According to lots of people on Twitter (no confirmation from any reliable media source yet), there have been massive defections from the Khamis Brigade today as rumors spread across Libya that Khamis Gaddafi is in critical condition following a kamikaze attack on the Gaddafi compound.

Kandahar said:

According to lots of people on Twitter (no confirmation from any reliable media source yet), there have been massive defections from the Khamis Brigade today as rumors spread across Libya that Khamis Gaddafi is in critical condition following a kamikaze attack on the Gaddafi compound.

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I have read those rumors. While I hope that at least some of them are accurate, the sad reality is that a large number of rumors, especially in recent days, have been far off the mark.

For example, even descriptions of victory at Ajdabiya should be taken with a large grain of salt when one takes into consideration the Gadhafi forces' tactics. As one saw at Zawiya, Gadhafi's forces penetrate a city, draw fire, engage in skirmishes/bombardment, then withdraw. They repeat those tactics and, in effect, carry out a war of attrition for those cities until the resistance has effectively been neutralized. The lives of the city's residents are of little consequence to Gadhafi's forces. Very likely, that's what happened at Ajdabiya yesterday. Some of Gadhafi's forces entered the city, engaged in fighting, and then withdrew by evening. More than likely, the same tactic will be repeated today, unless Gadhafi's forces try to accelerate their push toward Benghazi.

Kandahar said:

The rebels are still getting lots of high-value defections from Gaddafi's army, and there is serious chatter that Egypt may invade Libya to help the rebels depose Gaddafi. Although the last few days have seen some setbacks for the rebels, I don't think this is over yet, and the momentum may already be swinging back to the rebels.

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The rebs don't have artillery, they don't have air assets, they don't have any armored brigades, all they have a are a buncha poorly trained light infantry soldiers. They were screwed from jump street

I'm still waiting for the hyper-effective asymetrical warfare that we've been hearing so much about to get into gear.

Most likely there will be an armed resistance that starts putting in IED's and killing high value targets. When and if this rebellion finally is crushed, it's best that these rebels go under ground and try and do this themselves. The UN and NATO won't move fast - and the U.S. will not independently go in and structure a no-fly zone. It's a lose/lose scenario - if we did go in, this would give fodder for more terrorists bleating "See - the imperial Americans are occupying more Muslim countries", when we don't do anything and let them sort it out on their own, "The West has failed us".

apdst said:

I'm still waiting for the hyper-effective asymetrical warfare that we've been hearing so much about to get into gear.

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I'm waiting for "greater Europe" to do something. Once again, it is their part of the world andonce again it is their colonial mess. It's very historical.

1) They deliberated and delibarated for years over "Yugoslavia" until an American President shoved the UN to the side and led the mission to stop genocide.

2) They frowned on removing Saddam Hussein after helping us bomb Iraq 4 seperate times since 1991 and even after Osama Bin Laden used the UN mission to starve them out as an excuse for 9/11.

3) They did nothing to stop the later genocide in Sudan even as Bush and Blair pushed the UN to declare it a genocide.

4) France offered to assist the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia against his people before he fled (their former colony).

5) Italy praised Mubarak as wise.

And now France delivers sermons of moral authority on helping Libyans? Well, what's stopping them? Permission from the decrepit UN? The UN will always protect soveriegnty at all cost and deliver them their immoral international excuse for apathy. Support from fellow European nations? Fat chance considering that they are fellow European nations and few of them have ever made a move to liberate anybody. Or are they simply doing what we have seen before and preaching in the absence of US power? Were we to lead this, they would find a seat on the bench and criticize. Were we to lead this tomorrow and since they have already opened their mouths about supporting it, they would do the bare minimum and allow us to take the bruises and all critical fallout.

In the mean time, France is more than content allowing the powerless UN to "prevent" them from behaving as a moral nation. Of course, thius doesn't get us of the hook, but in our defense and despite Obama's Leftist mind, we are pretty busy everywhere in this world right now.

Just once, could another country in the world take the lead on something like this.

They all sit in the stands and watch us, then criticize us no matter what.

I'm not saying Obama shouldn't have done something....anything....but it would be nice to see a European country grow a pair of balls just once. There doesn't appear to be a man under the age of 80 that has a pair over there.