Author Topic: US, French, and British Military Now In Libya!  (Read 807 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Christians4LessGvt

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11153
    • View Profile
    • "The Religion Of Peace"
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
US, French, and British Military Now In Libya!
« on: February 25, 2011, 10:48:26 AM »
US military advisers in Cyrenaica.
Qaddafi's loses his air force

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

February 25, 2011


British HMS Cumberland puts into Benghazi port

Hundreds of US, British and French military advisers have arrived in Cyrenaica, Libya's
eastern breakaway province, debkafile's military sources report exclusively. This is
the first time America and Europe have intervened militarily in any of the popular
upheavals rolling through the Middle East
since Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution in
early January.  The advisers, including intelligence officers, were dropped from
warships and missile boats
at the coastal towns of Benghazi and Tobruk
Thursday Feb. 24, for a threefold mission:

1. To help the revolutionary committees controlling eastern Libyan establish
government frameworks for supplying two million inhabitants with basic services
and commodities;

2. To organize them into paramilitary units, teach them how to use the weapons
they captured from Libyan army facilities, help them restore law and order on the streets
and train them to fight Muammar Qaddafi's combat units coming to retake Cyrenaica.

3. The prepare infrastructure for the intake of additional foreign troops. Egyptian
units are among those under consideration.

Qaddafi was shaken up badly Friday, Feb. 25, when many of his air force commanders
decided to no longer obey his orders or those of his commanders, debkafile's exclusive
military sources report.  This loss deprived him at one stroke of one of the key pillars
sustaining his fight for survival against the opposition since Sunday, Feb. 20. It means
he is short of an essential resource for recapturing the eastern half of the country
where half of Libya's oil wealth and its main oil export terminals are situated.

Friday, NATO Council and the UN Security Council meet in separate emergency
sessions to consider ways to halt the bloodletting in Libya and punish its ruler Qaddafi
for his violent crackdown of protesters.

debkafile reported on Feb. 22: The 22,000-strong Libyan Air Force with its 13 bases is
Muammar Qaddafi's mainstay for survival against massive popular and international
dissent. The 44 air transports and a like number of helicopters swiftly lifted loyal tribal
militiamen fully armed from the Sahara and dropped them in the streets of Tripoli
Monday Feb. 21.

Thursday Qaddafi launched an offensive to wrest the coastal towns around Tripoli from
rebel hands. Our military sources report that tanks pounded opposition positions in the
towns of Misrata, 25 km to the east of Tripoli and Zawiya, 30 km west of the capital,
under the command of Gen. Khweldi Hamidi, a Qaddafi kinsman.

In a bloody battle, the insurgents ousted Qaddafi's forces from Misrata,
but his troops broke through to Zawiya and captured the town at great loss of life.
There are no reliable casualty figures but hundreds are believed to have been killed
Thursday on both sides. Later that day, the insurgents of Cyrenaica announced they
were firmly in control of the region including Libya's main export oil terminal in Benghazi,
the country's second largest town.  Whether or not they decide to block the fuel supplies
up again on world markets. Thursday night, Brent crude went for $117 the barrel in London
and $103 in New York.

In a 30-minute telephone interview Thursday night, Qaddafi again charged that Al Qaeda
and the Muslim Brotherhood had instigated the protest uprising in Libya. He warned that
the fall of Cyrenaica would open Libya to the establishment of a Muslim jihadi and radical
rear base for attacks on Europe and incursions into Egypt.
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan - June 12, 1987

Christians4LessGvt

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11153
    • View Profile
    • "The Religion Of Peace"
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: US, French, and British Military Now In Libya!
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2011, 01:07:53 PM »


Analysts: More Libyan bloodshed could
prompt U.S., NATO intervention


By Michael Martinez, CNN

February 25, 2011 11:31 a.m. EST
 
After 10 days of protest, Moammar Gadhafi has lost control of the eastern portion of Libya.

(CNN) -- If the U.S. military were to intervene in an increasingly chaotic Libya, it would most likely be part of a NATO action in which Libyan bloodshed has reached a humanitarian crisis, analysts said Thursday.

As reports emerged Thursday about deadly clashes between leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces and anti-government protesters in the town of Zawiya near Tunisia, analysts highlighted how Gadhafi has already pledged to fight a rebellion to martyrdom.

Military intervention "is something which I hope doesn't happen, but it looks as though at some point that it should happen," said Simon Henderson, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"What's an acceptable number of civilian deaths? I don't know. Choose your figure," Henderson said. "At the very least, instead of having a casualty list certainly in the hundreds, possibly in the thousands, we don't want a casualty list numbering in the tens of thousands, or 100,000 or so."

After 10 days of protest, Gadhafi has lost control of the eastern portion of a country he has ruled for 42 years, and analysts portrayed him as a dictator desperately clinging to power. Members of his government have defected, and in a sign of growing international pressure, Switzerland ordered Thursday that Gadhafi's assets be frozen.

"You've got to assume the worst about Moammar Gadhafi," Nicholas Burns, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School and former under secretary of state between 2005 and 2008, told CNN. "With his back to the wall, he's going to go out in a blaze of vicious attacks."

North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense chiefs ought to be holding discussions about "not taking action but preparation" for the Libyan crisis, said Robert Kagan, a Mideast expert who worked in the State Department under President Ronald Reagan.

"I don't think anyone is talking about immediate military actions now," Kagan told CNN, especially as 167 U.S. citizens are waiting on a ferry to leave Libya.

U.S. officials have said all options were under consideration, including sanctions and enforcement of a no-fly zone, to try to keep the Libyan government from attacking protesters.

Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, interpreted that statement as indicating that military force remains a possibility.

"In my opinion, it's still premature to talk about U.S. military intervention in Libya at this point, but we should not eliminate it completely," Sharqieh said.

Meanwhile, the Department of State recommended Thursday that the 6,000 or so Americans in Libya "depart immediately due to the potential for ongoing unrest."

Libya's disintegration, the latest Middle East uprising that has already toppled autocracies in nearby Tunisia and Egypt, poses greater impacts to Europe than the United States, analysts said.

Africa's largest oil producer, Libya exports 1.5 million barrels a day, mostly to Europe, which relies on the country for 10% of its energy needs, analysts said.

Meanwhile, refugees fleeing Libyan violence are expected to land in such European countries as Italy, analysts said.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama spoke with the leaders of France, Italy and the United Kingdom on coordinating an international response to the crisis in Libya, the White House said.

In separate phone conversations with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and British Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama "expressed his deep concern with the Libyan government's use of violence, which violates international norms and every standard of human decency, and discussed appropriate and effective ways for the international community to immediately respond," the White House statement said.

While some critics say the Obama administration has been slow to react to Libya, the statement said Thursday's discussions were to "coordinate our urgent efforts to respond to developments and ensure that there is appropriate accountability."

"The leaders discussed the range of options that both the United States and European countries are preparing to hold the Libyan government accountable for its actions, as well as planning for humanitarian assistance," the White House statement said.

Complicating any consideration of military intervention is how American and European armed forces have been strained from repeated deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq for almost 10 years, analysts said.

Libya's factions and tribalism would make an intervention perilous, said Nathan Hughes, director of military analysis for the global intelligence firm Stratfor of Austin, Texas.

"It's not clear what a post-Gadhafi Libya looks like," Hughes said. "It's a very messy situation. It would be a very difficult situation to jump into militarily.

"There are no geographical boundaries. There are soft demographic, cultural and tribal boundaries. To get enmeshed in that without understanding the local culture ... it would be a pretty tough spot to put troops in," Hughes added. "Once the writing is on the wall that Gadhafi is going to go likely to go, the incentive for the various tribal factions and other factions within Libya is to maneuver to make sure they have a place in whatever comes next."

Were NATO to send armed forces into Libya, the rest of the Arab world wouldn't protest much, the analysts said.

"I don't think they would have any problem with this. I would suspect that the Arab world would support this," Sharqieh said.

Added Henderson: "On day one, they would probably think it's a good idea. On day two, come back and ask...me."

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/24/libya.military.intervention/index.html#

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan - June 12, 1987

Plane

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 26993
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: US, French, and British Military Now In Libya!
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2011, 02:27:35 AM »
I think it will be important that there be little doubt that Quaddifi is being put out by the people of Libia. If there were any plausability to the claim that the rebellion is in the service of foreigners this would work strongly against a good outcome.

Perhaps some intervention could hasten the end of this bloodbath , but the momentum of the people will have to be 51%.

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: US, French, and British Military Now In Libya!
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2011, 03:56:34 PM »
Perhaps some intervention could hasten the end of this bloodbath , but the momentum of the people will have to be 51%.

=============================================
It is difficult to hold a plebiscite when there is a revolution going on. The Libyans need to resolve their own problems.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Christians4LessGvt

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11153
    • View Profile
    • "The Religion Of Peace"
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: US, French, and British Military Now In Libya!
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2011, 04:22:24 PM »
. The Libyans need to resolve their own problems.

If it were only that easy.
If 10% have better guns from say Iran, then 10% can over-rule the will of the majority.
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan - June 12, 1987

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: US, French, and British Military Now In Libya!
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2011, 06:59:26 PM »
Better than letting someone else resolve their problems.

Iran is unlikely to arm 10% of Libya. It is unlikely to arm any of them.

Libyans are Sunni, Iranians are Shiite.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."