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Gaddafi army 'not at breaking point'
BBC News ^ | 31 March 2011

Posted on 03/31/2011 8:05:19 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi's armed forces are not close to breaking point despite hundreds of allied air strikes, American military chiefs have said.

Adm Mike Mullen told a US Congress committee Col Gaddafi's troops still had 10 times the rebels' firepower.

At the same hearing, Defence Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the US would put no "boots on the ground" in Libya.

Rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces appear to have reached a stalemate in their fight for control of the country.

In recent days, rebels have been urging international forces to conduct more air strikes.

Adm Mullen told the House of Representatives armed forces committee that bad weather had stopped them from identifying targets over the past three or four days.

"[The weather] has more than anything else reduced the impact... reduced the effectiveness, and has allowed the regime forces to move back to the east," the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

Despite the weather, he said the air strikes since the beginning of the operation had wiped out between 20% and 25% of Col Gaddafi's forces.

"We have actually fairly seriously degraded his military capabilities. That does not mean he's about to break, from a military standpoint, because that's not the case," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: army; breaking; gaddafi; islam; jihad; libya; marxist; point
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1 posted on 03/31/2011 8:05:22 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Top ranking officers in his army best consider what’s going to happen to them when their leader goes. Their lives won’t be worth a plug nickel.


2 posted on 03/31/2011 8:06:59 PM PDT by RC2
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To: MinorityRepublican

Well, we need to just go in there with half a million troops on the ground, plus armor and air.

Should take us less than 10000 days to clear it all up.


3 posted on 03/31/2011 8:13:54 PM PDT by lurk
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To: MinorityRepublican
From a West Point study of jihadists in Iraq:

A breakout of the hometowns of Libyan jihadists who showed up in Iraq:

Note that the 84% of the jihadists came from Darnah and Benghazi, both rebel strongholds that were (as pointed out in the West Point study) previously the scene of Islamist uprisings in the mid-1990's.

4 posted on 03/31/2011 8:14:18 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always)
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To: MinorityRepublican
He has, what? accord to rumor, 140 tons of gold in country, instead of sitting in Geneva or London?

That buys lots of loyalty and talent.

Heck, if it didn't mean firing on Americans, I'd consider contracting to him, if he's paying in gold. Work here in the states is a little slow right now, and I've had too many checks from customers bounce the last couple of years.

/johnny

5 posted on 03/31/2011 8:15:01 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: MinorityRepublican

“Gaddafi army ‘not at breaking point’”

Are the Western forces doing what I read the Muslims do? Aim in the general direction, and let Allah guide the missiles?

Seems to me after Billions of dollars, pounds, Francs, or Euro’s, of ordnance has been targeted at he whose name cannot be spelled uniformly in the Western Culture’s Palace, Mansion, Headquarters, Outhouse, etc. there should be something broken.


6 posted on 03/31/2011 8:16:43 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists, call 'em what you will, they ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Defence Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the US would put no "boots on the ground" in Libya.

He also has said as long as he's in his position that will not change. He has to keep repeating this over and over and over before the dim-wits understand "none of our troops on the ground!"

7 posted on 03/31/2011 8:16:53 PM PDT by caww
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To: MinorityRepublican
When Qaddafi wins, payback is going to be a beotsch! Americans need to take precautions against the payback.
8 posted on 03/31/2011 8:22:04 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the Constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: caww
"He also has said as long as he's in his position that will not change. He has to keep repeating this over and over and over before the dim-wits understand "none of our troops on the ground!"

Pure crazy talk.

We already have boots on the ground and anyone who denies that is lying. USSOC is there in at least moderate numbers...certainly more than a hundred.

We just don't have regular forces on the ground...YET.

Oh, we will. Bummer will take a shot at not losing face...but he'll back down before he loses his base.

9 posted on 03/31/2011 8:23:01 PM PDT by Mariner (USS Tarawa, VQ3, USS Benjamin Stoddert, NAVCAMS WestPac, 7th Fleet, Navcommsta Puget Sound)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Defence Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the US would put no "boots on the ground" in Libya.

Perhaps the CIA agents who were recently admitted to be working with the terrorists are wearing sneakers.

10 posted on 03/31/2011 8:23:08 PM PDT by Cicero
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To: April Lexington

Qaddafi had backed off WMD and terrorism after Reagan counter attacked and then after the Iraq War, which he admitted was why he opened up to the West and gave up his WMD programs. So far he is winning this war, and if he does remain in power, it’s highly doubtful he would continue that policy - especially if he then knows he was able to survive a direct attack by the West - no longer any incentive to fear he would meet Saddam’s fate. And supposing that doesn’t happen and he is ousted - will a Taliban style regime take his place instead? This has the makings of being a complete disaster.


11 posted on 03/31/2011 8:29:36 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: MinorityRepublican

Mullen and Gates seem to be the problem. You have to ask yourselves, could these guys win any war? Maybe you should ask them to tell? Like “don’t ask, don’t tell”.


12 posted on 03/31/2011 8:30:24 PM PDT by DenverInfidel (gays in the upper military)
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To: Mariner

I wasn’t refering to the military needed from the start to pinpoint targets etc. I realize we would never go in without special forces and cia doing what they do...likely they were there even before this became a “war”.

As for regular forces...exactly...I don’t want our boys in there at all ever. Let the French and British carry out the footwork...once this becomes a total guerella warfare environment...am already hearing Gaddafi’s in that direction now.


13 posted on 03/31/2011 8:32:17 PM PDT by caww
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To: MinorityRepublican

Whut? A no fly zone can be hindered by weather? Who knew. Why did Bambi think we could win a push button war.


14 posted on 03/31/2011 8:38:11 PM PDT by lacrew (Mr. Soetoro, we regret to inform you that your race card is over the credit limit.)
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To: Zhang Fei
From a West Point study of jihadists in Iraq

Another study counts few from Libya.

Link

Both studies contain small sample sizes, and do not conclusively represent the thousands if not tens of thousands of foreign fighters in Iraq.

15 posted on 03/31/2011 8:39:48 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: MinorityRepublican
"When you have Islamic jihadists going toe-to-toe with a mass-murdering thug and his followers, humanitarianism is in dangerously short supply. So, apparently, is sanity. If Colonel Cuckoo wins, we have the makings of a terrorist-led pariah state that hates the West in general, and the United States in particular. If the rebels win, we have the makings of a terrorist-led pariah state which hates the West in general, and the United States in particular. Is there clarity in redundancy?"

-- columnist Arnold Ahlert

16 posted on 03/31/2011 8:43:54 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (If you're not a personhood pro-lifer, your conservatism is fatally flawed.)
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To: Zhang Fei
Here's a third report.

Link

I don't see Libya listed.

17 posted on 03/31/2011 8:47:29 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: April Lexington

>>>>>>>>When Qaddafi wins, payback is going to be a beotsch! Americans need to take precautions against the payback.>>>>>>>>>>
I think it is more precautions needed in case if Duffy is going to lose.
It will be a good starting point for a ME-wide Al-Qaedistan with all the oil and WMD they want.


18 posted on 03/31/2011 8:48:09 PM PDT by cunning_fish
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To: MinorityRepublican
"Defence Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the US would put no "boots on the ground" in Libya."

He siad: "Not on my watch"

I haven't had any great fondness for Gates but I bless him now. I have a feeling he and bummer have had some go-rounds. Gates knows who the rebels are. He wants no part of putting out soldiers that have been fighting and dying for years against Al Qaeda to suddenly be told they now have to go fight FOR them. And indeed. it would be a terrible thing for the troops. The moral would be as bad as it cuold get. Just @#$%@&^% that traitorous, lily-livered, muzzie loving poor excuse for a human being that is causing this mess.

Mullen is tied up in this too. Whose running the Afghanistan fighting?

Is this a wag-the-dog scenario to keep us all from noticing that the TIC (T=traitor) if turning, valley by valley, the whole Kunar Province (in the high Hindu Kush Mts of north eastern Afghanistan) that our troops fought and sacrificed and died in for years, back over to OBL - just pulling out out troops and giving it all back to OBL. Now he can, once again, set up in the very place he planned and trained for 911.

Oh, you didn't know this was going on?

That's because you haven't yet learned to WATCH THE OTHER HAND!

(live links next post)

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

http://www.captainsjournal.com/2011/02/10/abandoning-the-pech-valley-part-ii/

read the comments

19 posted on 03/31/2011 8:53:18 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("We stand together or we fall apart" mt)
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To: MinorityRepublican

per my above post.

With obummer - always WATCH THE OTHER HAND

First the Korengal

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

Now the Pech - so osama now has the Kunar Province back, a gift from ‘bummer. (I have an idea our commanders have just about had it with this slithering CIC. I would not be surprised to hear that Gates is gone any time now. He said no boots on the ground (in Libya) “not on my watch” (read the comments)

http://www.captainsjournal.com/2011/02/10/abandoning-the-pech-valley-part-ii/


20 posted on 03/31/2011 8:53:33 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("We stand together or we fall apart" mt)
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