A striking replay of 2003 invasion of Iraq?

On Monday my thoughts and compositional noodlings were pretty pessimistic and defeated about the prospects for the Tripoli-Qaddafi side of Libya's civil war. The TNC-NATO glove puppets of Washington and its allies had, I felt certain, only a few more hours of fighting left.

But then the hours stretched into days. I am still sadly confident the anti-imperialist side in Libya has been out-fought by the most powerful military in the world, but for the war-mongering print and TV news rascals, the impatience is all the more intolerable. Since Washington's troops murdered Osama Bin Laden in cold blood on May 1, the passion for grabbing the next big war scoop has been palpable.

The arguments all week between the anti-imperialist and anti-anti-imperialist activists and bloggers here in the United States have devolved to a tit-for-tat context of links to conflicting news reports defending respective sides. Yoshie Furuhashi's piece on MR Zine today was a welcome and totalizing relief from conflicting and incongruous minutiae.

The below gossip flypaper, by contrast, only has a few points by US leftist Ted Rall to recommend it. Rall writes:

Libya is likely to be plunged into a long-running civil war. “It’s a striking replay of 2003, with the US invasion of Iraq, when the United States toppled a dictator who had effectively stifled his opposition, and [they] didn’t know what they would be replacing him with,” he told RT. “We are seeing the same exact situation now in Libya. The Transitional Council is a hotchpotch of groups who inevitably are going to be in conflict with one another. Civil War is almost inevitable.”

Perhaps the civil war option is over-stated, but in the absence of any consistent Marxist leadership on the ground within the Libyan working class, the TNC and Tripoli factions may be left to their own internecine devices long enough to allow Washington and Paris carte blanche.
I for one am done trying to sum up an ongoing war, at least for this weekend.

‘Death or victory!’ – Gaddafi addresses the nation

Colonel Gaddafi has addressed his nation to say the battle with “aggressors” will last “until the end”. Meanwhile, the rebels’ assault on the Tripoli compound brought no visible results and shelling goes on in Libyan towns.

Muammar Gaddafi said leaving his compound was a tactical move.

Colonel has addressed the nation via Libyan radio, declaring that “in the fight against aggressors there is only death or victory.” He said that the Bab al-Aziziya compound no longer exists. It was totally destroyed by 64 NATO air strikes.

As of now, the leader and his family are nowhere to be found.

Gaddafi spokesperson, Moussa Ibrahim, speaking on Libyan television from an undisclosed location, warned the battle for Libya will turn the country into a volcano, lava and fire. He stressed that the country’s government can resist the attacks for months or even years.

“Libya will become a volcano,” he promised. He condemned the rebels and claimed that 12,000 tribesmen were converging on Tripoli to fight.

Ted Rall, an American columnist and author says Libya is likely to be plunged into a long-running civil war. “It’s a striking replay of 2003, with the US invasion of Iraq, when the United States toppled a dictator who had effectively stifled his opposition, and [they] didn’t know what they would be replacing him with,” he told RT. “We are seeing the same exact situation now in Libya. The Transitional Council is a hotchpotch of groups who inevitably are going to be in conflict with one another. Civil War is almost inevitable.”

Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV says that the capital is being pounded by Gaddafi forces’ Grad missiles and mortars. Reuters also reports pro-Gaddafi forces attacking the town of Ajelat, west of Tripoli, with missiles and tanks.

Rebels overran the fortified compound of the Libyan leader in Bab al-Azizya in Tripoli following intense fighting with pro-Gaddafi forces and heavy shelling by NATO jets late on Tuesday. Rebels claimed also they gained control of much of the capital, but Gaddafi’s whereabouts were still unknown.

Meanwhile, the National Transitional Council reports that 400 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured over the last three days of fighting. Alternative reports claim that more than 1,000 people have died in the violence and NATO air strikes.

Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and journalist, believes that whatever Colonel Gaddafi or the rebel leaders say, it is practically impossible to verify what is true or false at this point.

“But certainly what has been coming from the Western media has been proven to be lies,” he declared. “Gaddafi opened up the armories to the people of Libya, more than a million rifles and other arms have been handed out to the people of Tripoli. The claim that has been made by the so-called ‘progressive’ media of the United States is that Gaddafi is a hated dictator and that this is an indigenous rebellion. The dictator does not hand people guns and say: ‘Please, defend me!’”

Source