Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. His most recent book is Engaging the Muslim World (Palgrave Macmillan, March, 2009) and he also recently authored Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
His thoughts on recent events in Libya here.
There is a lot of tin-foil-hat nonsense floating about. This seems like a level-headed, considered view of the situation.
Showing posts with label Gadhafi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gadhafi. Show all posts
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Tripoli Is Hotting Up: France 24
This from France 24, which tends to have a good handle on Middle East news:
Explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli on Saturday night, after days of battlefield defeats left Muammar Gaddafi’s government and troops penned ever more tightly in the besieged capital.
The scale of the unrest was unclear, but speculation was rife that Gaddafi’s 41-year rule was close to collapse.
Tripoli residents told Reuters they could hear shooting from several locations and there were anti-Gaddafi protesters in the streets. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told state television however: “All of Tripoli is safe and stable.”
This week’s rebel advances on Tripoli—Muammar Gaddafi’s last major stronghold—have transformed the war by cutting the capital off from its main road link to the outside world and putting unprecedented pressure on Gaddafi.
Two twitter feeds from appear to be reputable sources are here:
http://twitter.com/#!/JomanaCNN
http://twitter.com/#!/jessradio
Gates of Vienna has been keeping up with the refugee flood making its way from Northern Africa to Southern Europe, which has been generally overlooked in all the tizzy about Europe being, well, broke.
Chinstraps on, ya'll. If you're in the markets, the waters will be choppy. If you're in Tripoli, though, you're likely to get caught in the crossfire. Gadafi and his ilk tend to create as much chaos, and as many refugees and casualties as possible, in order to retain power and/or cover their escape to the airport with the country's gold reserves to keep them warm. Gas up that Gulfstream, Mohamar! don't fergit the bullion. Hugo Chavez may be yer home-boy, but nothing sez 'thank-yew' like about a ton of gold.
BTW, if the rebels capture the Lockerbie Bomber again (who did not, after all, die of cancer) will they ship him back to the Scots for safekeeping? Or will they quietly turn him over to the CIA? Just sayin...
Explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli on Saturday night, after days of battlefield defeats left Muammar Gaddafi’s government and troops penned ever more tightly in the besieged capital.
The scale of the unrest was unclear, but speculation was rife that Gaddafi’s 41-year rule was close to collapse.
Tripoli residents told Reuters they could hear shooting from several locations and there were anti-Gaddafi protesters in the streets. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told state television however: “All of Tripoli is safe and stable.”
This week’s rebel advances on Tripoli—Muammar Gaddafi’s last major stronghold—have transformed the war by cutting the capital off from its main road link to the outside world and putting unprecedented pressure on Gaddafi.
Two twitter feeds from appear to be reputable sources are here:
http://twitter.com/#!/JomanaCNN
http://twitter.com/#!/jessradio
Gates of Vienna has been keeping up with the refugee flood making its way from Northern Africa to Southern Europe, which has been generally overlooked in all the tizzy about Europe being, well, broke.
Chinstraps on, ya'll. If you're in the markets, the waters will be choppy. If you're in Tripoli, though, you're likely to get caught in the crossfire. Gadafi and his ilk tend to create as much chaos, and as many refugees and casualties as possible, in order to retain power and/or cover their escape to the airport with the country's gold reserves to keep them warm. Gas up that Gulfstream, Mohamar! don't fergit the bullion. Hugo Chavez may be yer home-boy, but nothing sez 'thank-yew' like about a ton of gold.
BTW, if the rebels capture the Lockerbie Bomber again (who did not, after all, die of cancer) will they ship him back to the Scots for safekeeping? Or will they quietly turn him over to the CIA? Just sayin...
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Memo To Future Presidents And Prime Ministers: The Libyan Civil War
If'n yer gunna start a war with a nutter blood-stained dictator, check to see how deep his pockets are.
Gadhafi has over seven billion dollars in gold to turn to, sitting in his own private vaults, according to Bloomberg.
That'll buy yew a whole slew of Malian mercenaries, tanks to replace the ones the French blew up, and trainloads of munitions, which can be bought with cash and trucked in across the southern border. He's just begun the killing, raping and maiming.
So, next time, give a thought before you 'go kinetic' on someone. You might not call it a war, but he sure does, and people like Gadhafi stay in power by playing to win. Public opinion pollsters don't do a good trade in places like Libya, know-whud-i-mean?
Gadhafi has over seven billion dollars in gold to turn to, sitting in his own private vaults, according to Bloomberg.
That'll buy yew a whole slew of Malian mercenaries, tanks to replace the ones the French blew up, and trainloads of munitions, which can be bought with cash and trucked in across the southern border. He's just begun the killing, raping and maiming.
So, next time, give a thought before you 'go kinetic' on someone. You might not call it a war, but he sure does, and people like Gadhafi stay in power by playing to win. Public opinion pollsters don't do a good trade in places like Libya, know-whud-i-mean?
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Sense of Events: "Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans."
Plan? What Plan? There is no Plan A, or B, or C.
Donald Sensing says it best.
This was the president's speech in a nutshell: There is no Plan C, no Plan B, and for that matter, there is no Plan A, either. He knows what he wants to happen, but shrinks definitively and certainly away from making it happen. He hopes Qaddafi will play nice and beat feet outta there, and wishes Libya the best in the meantime. Or as Josh Trevino tweeted after the speech,
This is the first time in American history that a President has simultaneously set a war aim and disavowed means to obtain it.
Think the Balkans from 1912-1914, all of Europe in the 1930's, Lyndon Johnson and his Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, our successful efforts to arm the Taliban in the 1980's.
Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans.
Donald Sensing says it best.
This was the president's speech in a nutshell: There is no Plan C, no Plan B, and for that matter, there is no Plan A, either. He knows what he wants to happen, but shrinks definitively and certainly away from making it happen. He hopes Qaddafi will play nice and beat feet outta there, and wishes Libya the best in the meantime. Or as Josh Trevino tweeted after the speech,
This is the first time in American history that a President has simultaneously set a war aim and disavowed means to obtain it.
Think the Balkans from 1912-1914, all of Europe in the 1930's, Lyndon Johnson and his Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, our successful efforts to arm the Taliban in the 1980's.
Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Claims Don't Fit The Facts: What The Brits Know That Obama Assumes Americans Don't Know
It is breathaking to listen to Barack Obama, as OS did yesterday, in the parking lot of the grocery in his old pick-em-up truck. He didn't mean to, but as he was doing his Honey-Do errand after golf, here came the speech. OS just could not garner the moral courage to just dismiss it, and go buy milk and juice.
He kept listening for one word or phrase, which Himself (as President of The United States) never bothered to utter: The Constitution, or Constitutional Authority, or Congressional Approval Under The Law, or...well, you get the drift.
That's becuz, as the person who placed his hand upon the Bible and swore to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of The United States', he has no-zero-nil-nada-nichts authority under the Constitution (that he swore on the Bible to 'preserve, protect and defend, against all enemies, foreign and domestic'). It is of no consequence to him. He himself is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, as he has demonstrated again and again and again--from the illegal bailouts of car companies, to the unconstitutional health care 'reform' (so ruled by a Federal court, whose ruling he ignores and refuses to appeal), to the shutdown of the oil industry along the Gulf Coast (again, ignoring a Federal court order). On and on it goes, the slow creep of rule by diktat.
Only this time, ya'll, he has led the United States into war, against someone who is not an imminent threat to our shores or interests, without a shred of legal authority.
Tom McClintock's letter to the President states the problem clearly, and remains unanswered.
From the other side of the pond, and much more within reach of any mayhem Gadhafi may wish to create, the Brits know better. Little wonder they are so cynical about their American cousins.
Just a sample:
OBAMA: "Our most effective alliance, Nato, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. ... In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role."
THE FACTS: The US is, and always has been, the pre-eminent player in Nato. The United States supplies 22 per cent of NATO'S budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all Nato operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO'S Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral's boss is the supreme allied Commander Europe, a post always held by an American.
They know, and they know that he knows he is deliberately obscuring the truth of the situation, confident that he can fool enough of his own electorate, focused as they are on survival in The New Normal, and otherwise preoccupied with American Idol, The Final Four and the NFL labor lockout.
If he gets away with it, this will be the first of many more. How long does the laundry list of places to invade run? On what pretext? By what legal right? It is a slippery slope, a bloody and ghastly slippery slope.
Yes, Gadhafi's a blood-soaked tyrant, and needs to be killed, ASAP. Let's do that, without killing off our rule of law in the process, and killing millions more as an unintended consequence.
He kept listening for one word or phrase, which Himself (as President of The United States) never bothered to utter: The Constitution, or Constitutional Authority, or Congressional Approval Under The Law, or...well, you get the drift.
That's becuz, as the person who placed his hand upon the Bible and swore to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of The United States', he has no-zero-nil-nada-nichts authority under the Constitution (that he swore on the Bible to 'preserve, protect and defend, against all enemies, foreign and domestic'). It is of no consequence to him. He himself is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, as he has demonstrated again and again and again--from the illegal bailouts of car companies, to the unconstitutional health care 'reform' (so ruled by a Federal court, whose ruling he ignores and refuses to appeal), to the shutdown of the oil industry along the Gulf Coast (again, ignoring a Federal court order). On and on it goes, the slow creep of rule by diktat.
Only this time, ya'll, he has led the United States into war, against someone who is not an imminent threat to our shores or interests, without a shred of legal authority.
Tom McClintock's letter to the President states the problem clearly, and remains unanswered.
From the other side of the pond, and much more within reach of any mayhem Gadhafi may wish to create, the Brits know better. Little wonder they are so cynical about their American cousins.
Just a sample:
OBAMA: "Our most effective alliance, Nato, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. ... In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role."
THE FACTS: The US is, and always has been, the pre-eminent player in Nato. The United States supplies 22 per cent of NATO'S budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all Nato operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO'S Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral's boss is the supreme allied Commander Europe, a post always held by an American.
They know, and they know that he knows he is deliberately obscuring the truth of the situation, confident that he can fool enough of his own electorate, focused as they are on survival in The New Normal, and otherwise preoccupied with American Idol, The Final Four and the NFL labor lockout.
If he gets away with it, this will be the first of many more. How long does the laundry list of places to invade run? On what pretext? By what legal right? It is a slippery slope, a bloody and ghastly slippery slope.
Yes, Gadhafi's a blood-soaked tyrant, and needs to be killed, ASAP. Let's do that, without killing off our rule of law in the process, and killing millions more as an unintended consequence.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Best Business Model Ever Invented: European Arms Sales To Libya
(Sound of hand slapping forehead...'Damn, why didn't I think of that!')
It's ingenious, really! Sell all sorts of military hardware to mad despots, wait for the serfs to rebel, watch him use his toys to murder the citizenry, then in a fit of righteous indignation (with UN approval of course of course of course), go blow all that stuff to kingdom come.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
From Deutsche Welle-just a sample of the tale:
Could European-made arms technology have been used by authoritarian regimes to silence their own citizens? Analysts say that's hard to prove but reports that governments both in Bahrain and Libya may have done just that have sparked angry debates and accusations of double standards in some European countries.
In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron this week revoked licenses for arms sales to Libya and Bahrain after fears surfaced that British tear gas or riot equipment may have been used against political demonstrators.
In Belgium, YouTube footage showing alleged semi-automatic FN 303 anti-riot guns recently seized by anti-Gadhafi protesters has sparked a political controversy. Belgian defense company FN Herstal is said to have sold Libya arms worth 11.5 million euros. That included rifles, pistols, rifle grenades and ammunition cartridges.
In Germany, there are worries that its electronic exports to Libya could have possibly been used by the regime to jam internet and GPS services.
Of course, the good news is: If somehow Gadhafi and his homeboyz are sent on their way, then the tribal despots that succeed him will need new toys. And building materials and architects and engineers to rebuild all those cities blown up the last time around.
(Sound of hand slapping forehead...'Damn, why didn't I think of that!')
HT Miller-McCune
It's ingenious, really! Sell all sorts of military hardware to mad despots, wait for the serfs to rebel, watch him use his toys to murder the citizenry, then in a fit of righteous indignation (with UN approval of course of course of course), go blow all that stuff to kingdom come.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
From Deutsche Welle-just a sample of the tale:
Could European-made arms technology have been used by authoritarian regimes to silence their own citizens? Analysts say that's hard to prove but reports that governments both in Bahrain and Libya may have done just that have sparked angry debates and accusations of double standards in some European countries.
In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron this week revoked licenses for arms sales to Libya and Bahrain after fears surfaced that British tear gas or riot equipment may have been used against political demonstrators.
In Belgium, YouTube footage showing alleged semi-automatic FN 303 anti-riot guns recently seized by anti-Gadhafi protesters has sparked a political controversy. Belgian defense company FN Herstal is said to have sold Libya arms worth 11.5 million euros. That included rifles, pistols, rifle grenades and ammunition cartridges.
In Germany, there are worries that its electronic exports to Libya could have possibly been used by the regime to jam internet and GPS services.
Of course, the good news is: If somehow Gadhafi and his homeboyz are sent on their way, then the tribal despots that succeed him will need new toys. And building materials and architects and engineers to rebuild all those cities blown up the last time around.
(Sound of hand slapping forehead...'Damn, why didn't I think of that!')
HT Miller-McCune
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