Topic: WE'RE STUFFED!!!

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Series of airstrikes at Gaddafi military hardware and voila...rebels have covered 300 km in two days. Now they approach the mid-point of their journey to Tripoli which is Gaddafi's home town of Sirte (roughly 500 km from Tripoli). They say he has concentrated his soldiers there.

As these events evolve, the picture/nature of the military confrontation has become much clearer. It seems, that Gaddafi has not so many soldiers, but he has the hardware, rebels have many men, but no skills and no idea what they are doing.

Gaddafites advanced earlier using their superior firepower. They bombarded cities as long as it took for rebels to run away. Now the rebels advance only when French and British jets have destroyed Gaddafi's war machines. When they take a city (that is they dare to march into a city) they fire into the sky literally tons of ammunition so that it has to be replenished.

I saw some images of these warriors - two chaps fired a mortar so that it collapsed after a shot. Another chap simply launched a portable air defence missile into an empty sky with no targets in sight.

It is a peculiar war, but Fench and British would have to invent a good story to explain why they keep attacking ground targets in the areas where no military activities are taking place or the rebel 'offensive' would stop in its tracks in no time.

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She maintains that much is happening today that will damage the soul of our species evolution, and a similar line-holding may be required. Alas, there are none to recognise the dangers to the soul. We are heading for the falls. Perhaps, some wisdom beyond my ken has things in hand ... perhaps.

Speaking about crippling human souls

What is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull. What is right and just in one place is not allowed in another place. Developed countries fight pollution in India, China and Indonesia, but forget about their very own issues... Nice words likes 'democracy', 'freedom', etc. are made to mean different things to different people.

There is the Absolute and there is the Relative. There is the deep and there is the superficial. The only thing really worth its salt is reaching through the superficial out to the Absolute - the path of growth of human soul. This world is but training ground for doing it.

[Muffin]

Libyan rebel's supply truck.

[Michael]

Looks like Q will win after all.

[Builder]

Looks like Q will win after all.

The coalition still has a few cards in their sleeves. I would not quite give a final victory to anyone yet.

[Michael]

having arms is one thing, being able to use them effectively is another

[Builder]

having arms is one thing, being able to use them effectively is another

Very true. I'd guess CIA is thinking about having some men on the ground directing close air support on targets. That would allow at least to achieve stalemate.

[Jahn]

Looks like Q will win after all.

Not sure about that. One big rat left his sinking ship today.
The Libyan foreign minister Musa Kusa has resigned while being in great Britain.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?id=576566082&view=News

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The Libyan foreign minister Musa Kusa has resigned while being in great Britain.

Gaddafi is a very smart man. Many Western politicians or people do not see that at all. Not everyone can stay in power for 41 years.

Koussa is not offered an immunity in the UK and there are many things and cases to prosecute him for (he was a chief of intelligence in the beginning of 1990s). He will be a superb propaganda tool for Gaddafi if British police starts interrogating him. Guess how many other close allies of Gaddafi would like to defect?

That move of Gaddafi - letting Koussa (who was of no use anyway because he is old and scared) go (let the enemy take care of him) - reminds me of Chinese strategy of capturing enemy soldiers, holding them for a while, and letting them go. What happens next?

1) enemy does not trust its own released soldiers and puts them under guard - more soldiers are taken away from the frontline to guard duties. Moral of troops falls due to growing distrust and ambiguity.
2) your own soldiers would not even think of defecting - they see what the enemy does to own soldiers - what would they do to the enemy? Moral rises as the doubts fade.

Wars are won and lost at the level of strategy.

[Jahn]

Wars are won and lost at the level of strategy.

Well, it is your field of expertise.

[Michael]

What we have been fascinated by in this whole Middle East scenario, is the rise of people power - this is something totally new due to the communications revolution. It has happened before, but nothing like what is happening now. Plus we see this is only the beginning - the future is showing its tail feathers.

But that is not what the governments around the world are seeing. Middle East means one thing, and one thing only to their eyes - oil. And oil means energy. The entire world, and especially the wealthy nations, are completely dependant upon oil for their economic and social stability, let alone growth and power. Current situational developments in the Middle East are projected to push the oil price to around $200 a barrel. No government in the West will be left standing if that happens.

The imperative now for the hard heads of all developed and developing nations, is alternative energy. Nuclear has hit the wall at precisely the same time as the Middle East - isn't that absolutely extraordinary? Wouldn't you think there is a hidden hand in this?

Forget the rabble who seek lower taxes, a carbon tax is the fastest and most efficient way all nations can force a shift in their economies to alternative energy sources. Forget Global Warming - this is serious shit. Don't expect anyone in the Western governments to support democratic change in Saudi Arabia. We know the oil price is rising, but we have all been far too slack in preparing, and now its about to shoot up. Even a few days ago someone said to me that we still have twenty or thirty years of 'good oil' - Ha!

[Jahn]

says Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merker!


News coming out of Germany today [Tuesday this week - my comment], reveals that Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced a 3-month moratorium on previous plans to extend the lifetimes of Germany's 17 nuclear-power plants by 12 years. She indicated that 2 of the oldest plants will be shut down in the next few days and added this this action comes as a direct result of the tragedy in Japan. "Silent and devastated, we are following the apocalyptic events in Japan," Merkel said.

More details at:
http://thealienproject.blogspot.com/2011/03/apocalypse-now-germany-goes-offline.html

[Builder]

The imperative now for the hard heads of all developed and developing nations, is alternative energy. Nuclear has hit the wall at precisely the same time as the Middle East - isn't that absolutely extraordinary? Wouldn't you think there is a hidden hand in this?
...
days ago someone said to me that we still have twenty or thirty years of 'good oil' - Ha!

Good points!

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Former Mujahideen have joined rebels in Libya

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A Clash of the Extremes

Pastor Terry Jones and the Claim to Absolute TruthA commentary by Hasnain Kazim

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,755416,00.html

Twenty people have died in the protests triggered by Pastor Terry Jones' burning of the Koran in March and more violence is likely. But both his action, and the reaction in the Muslim world share the same problematic roots: Claims to absolute truth have little place in the modern world.

The Russian head of the United Nations mission in the northern Afghanistan city of Masar-i-Sharif had fled with three colleagues into a safe room when the mob stormed their building. But it wasn't long before the assailants broke into the room.

"Are you Muslim?" one of the insurgents yelled. The Russian, who was familiar with the Koran, lied and said he was.

"What is the profession of faith?"

The Russian didn't hesitate. "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet."

It was a lie that saved his life, according to the story told by one of the Russian's UN colleagues. He got away with a severe beating. But the three UN workers he was with, a Norwegian, a Swede and a Romanian, were all killed. A report in the Wall Street Journal describes how a German barely escaped the massacre; four Nepali guards also fell victim.

This attack, along with several other acts of violence, came in the wake of a Koran burning, which took place on March 20 in Gainesville, Florida. The desecration of the holy Muslim text had originally been scheduled for last autumn, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the US. Calling Islam a "violent religion," radical American pastor Terry Jones insisted that the Koran be burned, only backing down following worldwide protests and pressure from the White House.

Sentenced 'to Death'

But six months later, Jones, together with the pastor Wayne Sapp, orchestrated a tribunal. Playing judge, the two declared the Koran "guilty" and sentenced it "to death." Sapp played the executioner, dousing the book with kerosene and setting it alight. About 30 followers watched as the Koran burned and turned to ash.

Now Jones is contending that he and his parishioners are being threatened -- and that the riots in Afghanistan prove that Islam is a violent religion. Muslims, he insists, must be taken to task. He is demanding retribution for the attacks on the UN workers and is calling for the US government and the UN to take immediate action against Muslim countries.

The violence will likely grow. At least 20 people have been killed so far in Afghanistan, 11 during the attack on the UN in Masar-i-Sharif, and 9 more in riots in the southern city of Kandahar. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai turned up the rhetoric even further on Sunday. He demanded an apology from the US Congress and repeated his demand that the pastors in question be arrested.

In Pakistan, the opposition leader in the regional parliament of Punjab province said a marksman should be sent to Florida to take care of the issue. Protests are ongoing in both countries.

Jones says he does not feel responsible for the deaths. "We didn't call for violence and murder," he said. "We only burned a book." His parish is "saddened" by the deaths of the UN workers, he said, but it would not change anything the parish does.

It is a conflict that is being played out on a base level. Both sides carry blame: those who provoke, and those who allow themselves to be provoked. US President Barack Obama summed it up well: The desecration of a holy book, including the Koran, is "an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry." But it is also shameful to kill innocent people in response.

This is not the "Clash of Civilizations" that the late American political scientist Samuel Huntington prophesied after the end of the Cold War. Instead it is a clash of the extremes. On the one side are the radical, evangelical Christian pastors who offer blanket condemnations of Islam, knowing full well what the consequences might be. On the other side are the Muslim extremists who react reflexively and kill indiscriminately as revenge. Both sides think they are right. And they play by rules that disregard basic tenets of civilization. Man does not kill man. And man does not insult man, either.

Claiming an Absolute Truth

One could certainly pose the question: What is worse, the deaths of people or the burning of a book, even if it is a holy book? The answer should be clear to a civilized person, whether Christian or Muslim. But this question is secondary. The root of the problem is the claim made by both radical Christians and radical Muslims: that their belief is the only absolute truth.

In times when people lived at considerable distance from people of other faiths, such absolutism may not have been quite as dangerous. In those days, the conviction that one possessed the only real truth led to a stronger sense of community, of belonging. But as early as the Crusades, religious extremism revealed its shortcomings. And today, when one can travel from one end of the world to another in a day -- and people from different cultures live together -- the absolute truth dogma has no place.

The Indian journalist and politician Arun Shourie, born a Hindu but a practicing Buddhist today, is a sharp critic of religious claims to absolute truth. The problem, he says, is the idea that those who don't recognize the truth are at odds with God or Allah. Those who are so inflexible in their beliefs, Shourie says, are incapable of living in a multicultural and multi-religious society.


They differentiate between "us" and "them," and lack empathy for those with different beliefs. Killing becomes permissable: "They are the non-believers!" Burning books (or drawing cartoons) becomes merely an exercise in free speech.

"People must develop compassion," writes Karen Armstrong, the British author and former-nun who is influential in the Muslim world. She even offers courses in compassion in Pakistan.

The Russian UN worker recognized that he could not expect any compassion. He convinced the attackers that he believed in their truth. And that is the only way he survived.