Arab World Protests

[nacho]

Oh my god... Did anyone else catch his ranting, incoherent speech?  It was fucking hilarious.

Here are some high points:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Qaddafis-Most-Bizarre-Moments-in-a-Bizarre-Speech-7072

Sadly, they didn't include his weird, slurring aside where he compared himself to the Queen.

Here's a Youtube from Libyan state TV that's hard to follow because the translation is at the same volume as Gaddafi... But it's really something to see him acting crazy as he says this shit:

http://www.chillnite.com/video-of-speech-of-muammar-al-gaddafis-speech-on-22022011

A better video is here (highlights of crazy moments):

http://groundupct.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/muammar%C2%A0al-gaddafis%C2%A0speech-%C2%A0the-ramblings-of-a-mad-man/

[nacho]

Well, good, I'm glad CNN is sending us off-site to people who can actually report the news:

Editor's note: The staff at CNN.com has recently been intrigued by the journalism of Vice, an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn, New York. VBS.TV is Vice's broadband television network. The reports, which are produced solely by Vice, reflect a very transparent approach to journalism, where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process. We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers.

Brooklyn, New York (VBS) -- Libya is the latest nation to experience the violent civil unrest that has swept North Africa since December. But in August, things were much different. In fact, the country was making steps to rectify its long-sullied international image.

One of these steps was devising a youth conference, to be held in Tripoli. We wanted to get inside the country for a long time, so when Vice founder Shane Smith learned of the event, he submitted his credentials and was invited to take part in the festivities.

It's notoriously difficult to gain entry into Libya, largely because Moammar Gadhafi has ruled the country with an iron fist since a 1969 coup in which he overtook the former king. Gadhafi has used the nation's vast oil resources to exert his influence on North Africa and beyond.

What was presented as a nationwide multimedia presentation on Libya's open-armed embrace of global youth turned out to be a thinly veiled propaganda symposium where speakers espoused pro-Gadhafi messages and anti-Zionist rhetoric.

It was very clear, however, that the event was organized to promote Gadhafi's goal of creating the United States of Africa, a federation of all or most African countries, which would theoretically operate under a single currency and be chaired by Gadhafi himself.


"We get there, and it's completely disorganized," Smith said. "They had brought in Libyan citizens who were living in England, America and Canada to work for the conference. It's kind of like North Korea in that sense: They have such pull. 'Oh, you're Libyan? And you live in London? Well, you have to come back and work.' "
Soon after they arrived, Smith and his crew were assigned minders who watched them closely and dictated their itineraries. After the conference, Smith decided he wanted to take part in some sightseeing in Tripoli and sneaked off into the city while the men who were supposed to be watching him were distracted.
When Smith returned to the hotel, his minders were furious. They placed him and his crew under "house arrest" while the conference's other attendees caught flights back to their respective home countries.

[nacho]

Al jazeera just tweeted that parts of the Libyan air force have gone over to the protesters. At least one base (with all men and material) joined the revolution. I think we're going to see the end of the craziest little dictator within the next 24 hours.

[monkey!]

Next, it'll be the destruction of the terrorist, false State of Israel, if you believe what the media say re: Iranian manipulation of the situation.

[nacho]

Now that I would cheer.  Israel's the greatest mistake the modern world ever made. Misguided 20th Century imperialist thinking applied to a volatile situation that's been drilling into our souls for the last 60 years.

In a perfect world, we'd send all the jews to Montana or Wyoming or somewhere. Let them live their lives in a country that won't try to devour them whole. And then I can sleep with more IDF girls.

[monkey!]

Correction: The creation of the State of Israel was one of the greatest mistakes the world allowed to be made, blindly accepting Zionist propaganda, leading to over 60 years of ignored terrorism and pillaging, any speaking out against Israeli atrocities being branded as 'anti-semitic' by the same league of propagandists.

[monkey!]

So far the protestors now control over half of Libya....

[Cassander]

Muad'Dib!

[monkey!]

H' im sha' la!

[nacho]

Okay, so, your entire country is up in arms. You have control of, like, one city. You're relying on paramilitary troops and mercenaries because your military has defected.

Why try to hang on? There really is a time when you should just throw everything in the suitcase and get on that private plane to Burkina Faso.

Meanwhile, Yemen, Iraq, Tunisia 2.0, Bahrain, and Jordan are all in the midst of protests. Some violent, some peaceful.

[nacho]

So...wait... What are we going to do? And why are we reacting to this one and none of the others?

After two weeks of revolution and the deaths of thousands of Libyans, the Obama administration is starting to contemplate military action against the brutal Libyan regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

The United Nations Security Council has already sanctioned Gadhafi and referred him to the International Criminal Court following his violent suppression of Libya’s revolutionary movement, creating the contours of a hardening international position against Gadhafi. And now most U.S. nationals in Libya have now fled, removing what the Obama administration has considered an impediment to action.

So here comes the Navy. The Enterprise carrier strike group, last seen hunting pirates, is in the Red Sea — and may sail through Suez to the Mediterranean — and the New York Times reports that an “amphibious landing vessel, with Marines and helicopters” are there as well. The Financial Times adds that the British are considering the use of the air base at Akrotiri in Cyprus as a staging ground to enforce a no-fly zone. Any envisioned military action is likely to be a multilateral affair, either blessed by the U.N. or NATO.


That seems to be the harshest policy yet envisioned — one explicitly discussed today by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. (No one’s discussing a ground invasion.) For the time being, the Navy is simply moving assets into place in case President Obama decides to take more punitive measures against Gadhafi. Marine Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters today, “We are re-positioning forces in the region to provide options and flexibility.”

The rhetorical groundwork is getting laid as well. Asked if the U.S. had ruled out arming the rebel Libyan forces, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said today, “I don’t think we’ve ruled out anything at this point, but we’ll be monitoring this day to day and we’ll take appropriate steps.”

A coalition of foreign policy experts, mostly conservatives but some liberals, urged Obama last week to impose a no-fly zone and move naval assets near Libyan waters. Obama looks like he’s heeding its call. And if so, it looks like Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ Friday prediction of a sea-and-air-based military future might get vindicated rather quickly.

[nacho]

Somebody needs a dictionary:

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday: "Anytime you have somebody who laughs with American and international journalists while slaughtering his own people, I think they're not only delusional. One has to begin to question their grip on reality."

[monkey!]

It's a bigger reaction because Libya has more oil.

[nacho]

Which OPEC says they've prepared for. And, hey, the oil argument hasn't held any water in Iraq. Their infrastructure is still fucked.

[monkey!]

Yeah, but the US has lots more cheap oil.