Posted on 02/21/2011 10:33:23 AM PST by Uncle Miltie
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has ordered the Libyan air force to fire on military installations in Libya, according to what the BBC has characterized as a reliable source. Al Jazeera has suggested that air force fighters have opened fire on crowds of protesters.
Though the latter would be particularly draconian, the more important question is whether these signs reflect a split within the regime and Gadhafi using military force to crush opposition to his regime emerging from the military or other security forces. Similar reports of the Libyan navy firing on targets onshore also are emerging, as well as reports that Gadhafi has given execution orders to soldiers who have refused to fire on Libyan protesters.
... The use of these weapons is more appropriate for other armed entities rather than unarmed protesters. Libyan troops are good at instilling fear, but not good at stabilizing a situation, so the military may not be able to get in on the ground due to lost capability.
... these latest developments combined with recent reports of defections of military units to the demonstrators’ side continue to draw STRATFOR’s attention to the possibility that the regime is fracturing.
(Excerpt) Read more at stratfor.com ...
... = Edited Excerpt
Farandwide: RT @iyad_elbaghdadi: Over a hundred bodies of soldiers who refused to follow orders, found at Fadhil camp in #Benghazi, in mass grave. #Feb17 #Libya
Thanks Uncle Miltie. Meanwhile, some Libyan military aircraft have defected (so to speak) to nearby Malta.
Now also Iran!
Check THIS out, with the crowd swarming all over the motorcycle-riding BASIJ...!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNoxv1dIVnc
JUST WOW!
That could explain why at least 2 Mirage fighters fled to Malta. They didn’t want to attack their own people?
File that under “definition of torn apart by the mob”.
I agree. Just WOW
How’d Mal put it in Serenity/Firefly? “Time to misbehave!”
I guess freedom is spreading like wild-fire now. President Bush was right! Lit the fire in Iraq and it is spreading. Now what kind of freedom - who knows.
Can’t trust his own soldiers...he is going down.
AlAribya quotes sources inside Libyan military that an airstrike has been authorized on Benghazi, the first city to rise up during the protests.
Problem is that even if they get a democracy, at the first recession or if it doesn't make things better instantly, they're going to just put in another thug/military junta/theocracy of mad mullahs again.
You can take the Arab out of the peasants but you can't take the peasant out of the Arab.
The party for America may finally be coming to an end. It was a nice run, though.
Someone else needs to control the airspace over Libya. If our carriers are too far out, how about fighters from bases in Italy refueled? What if we asked the Egyptians to control the air?
Someone needs to stop the bombing and strafing of civilians. That can be a foreign party. Let’s get someone, preferrably good guys and definitely not the Libyans to control the airspace.
Why is the US Air Force/US Navy not shooting down the Libyan air force right now? Why are our Marines not landing in Tripoli?
This is what they did to Libyan soldiers who refused to kill their fellow brothers and sisters
http://muscvlvs.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-is-what-they-did-to-libyan.html
Not Americans. Let them kill each other as far as I’m concerned but keep our men out of it.
How in the hell is this our probelm!? Every damn Libyan alive today is not worth the blood of one deam US Marine! To hell with it...we can't afford the obligations we've got now we don't need to assume any more.
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