Esprit de Corps

Written by Scott Taylor

17.08.11

In the early stages of the rebellion in Libya, the rebels were able to seize tanks and weapons from Libyan government troops.

This led to some skirmishes between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists in a series of seesaw battles that were fought along Libya’s coastal highway.

However, since the outset, this conflict has been more of a media war than a fullscale armed clash.

In the chaotic early days of the fighting, the British Foreign Ministry reported that President Moammar Gaddafi had fled Libya to seek sanctuary in Venezuela. The rebels seemed poised to snatch a quick victory.

But contrary to the reports, Gaddafi had no intention of departing the scene and his shaken followers soon regained their composure and began mounting an effective defence against rebel advances. Without the discipline of professional troops, the rebels were soon in a headlong retreat back to their eastern stronghold in the city of Benghazi.

It was in an effort to prevent Gaddafi from inflicting reprisals on the rebels that the UN authorized the implementation of a NATO enforced no-fly zone over Libya. The premise for this action was to protect unarmed Libyan civilians from being bombed.

That, of course, did not apply to the civilians residing in the Gaddafi-controlled sectors of Libya as the Canadian-led NATO coalition soon began mounting airstrikes against government targets.

For more than five months now, NATO planes have supported the rebels and NATO warships have enforced a one-sided arms embargo against Gaddafi’s forces. In addition to this, all foreign-held Libyan financial assets have been frozen, making it virtually impossible for Libya to purchase any war materiel, or even basic necessities such as fuel.

Despite all these measures, the ragtag collection of fractious units that compose the rebels have been unable to make any serious tactical headway against Gaddafi loyalists—let alone topple the dictator.

On a fact-finding trip into Tripoli earlier this month, I was able to ascertain firsthand that Gaddafi has solidified his control over the capital and most of western Libya. Foreign diplomats still based in Tripoli confirmed to me that since NATO started bombing, Gaddafi support and approval ratings have actually soared to about 85 per cent.

Of the 2,335 tribes in Libya, over 2,000 are still pledging their allegiance to the embattled president. At present, it is the gasoline shortages and drastic reductions in electric power as a result of NATO’s bombing that have caused the most hardship to the Libyan people inside Gaddafi-controlled sectors.

However, at present, the people still blame

NATO—not Gaddafi—for the shortages. In an effort to combat that sentiment and to encourage a popular uprising against Gaddafi, NATO planes have taken to dropping leaflets in canisters over the streets of Tripoli.

Unfortunately for the NATO planning staff, the canister’s particles are heavy enough to cause injury and damage roofs when they plummet to the ground.

As for the messages contained on the dollar bill-sized leaflets, the Libyans are quite amused at the clumsy translations.

On one such note, the intended slogan is meant to urge the civilians of Libya to go forward and “embrace” the rebels. Instead, it translates to encourage Libyans to go out and “copulate” with the rebels.

Another NATO missive was intended to advise those living within Gaddafi’s sector to pack up and move to a rebel-occupied territory. This somehow became garbled into a request for citizens to relocate to a “possessed” (as in, by the devil) area of Libya.

It is possible that the continued embargo, shortage of fuel and downgrading of Libyan utilities will create a humanitarian crisis inside Gaddafi’s Libya so severe that his followers have no choice but to turn on him for the sake of their own survival.

However, if that indeed transpires, it will be impossible for the West to justify this as being a humanitarian intervention.

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