That fucker needs to go, and has for some time. What will become of it all is anybody's guess at this point. Iran sure is giving the shit sturring stick a good workout.
Don't know about any others internationally but the Libyan embassy in Canberra has released a statement saying they no longer represent Gadaffi's regime, and instead represent the Libyan people.
You doan unnerstan. The Middle East is where they got them durn Musselmens, or whatever they's called. It stretchers from DE'-troit to Indernesia.
It's fascinating how the potential for democracy to take hold in predominantly Islamic countries apparently terrifies some people.
I don't think anyone's afraid of true democracy taking hold. The fear is that a region with almost no history of true democracy and equal rights will in fact become more unstable and more extreme. While we hope true democracy takes root, the fear of the alternatives is certainly not without cause. Sometimes the enemy you know is better than the one you don't. I sure hope somehow all of these places become true democracies because most people just want to live in peace and make a living. If they're the ones in charge things will get better. If theocracies or extremists take control shit will go downhill fast. Time will tell.
This could be the best thing that's happened in the Middle East in our lifetime. It could also be the spark that lights the fuse on an explosion that sends us all to Hell. I don't think either one of those will happen, but there are plenty of scenarios in between and there are a lot of them that make things considerably more uncomfortable for us. But hey, keep buying gas guzzlers and voting down mass transit, we'll just go take the oil we need if it gets too expensive!
Please, find a map and point to Libya. I know what you're trying to say, but you're saying a factual error. Don't.
"The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and North Africa." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_east Just like the term 'Third World' the term 'Middle East' has grown since the British India Office coined it to denote the area between Egypt (Near East) and India (Far East).
That footage of him in a studio lit setting, underneath an umbrella insisting he hasn't fled to Venezuela was effing bizzare. Like that time he spoke at the UN bizzare. Sooner they rid of that jerkoff the better.
It's not the potential for democracy that terrifies me. I'm all for it. It's the potential for the fanatical islamic funamentalists swooping in and turning the country into another theocratic shithole that scares me. Here's hoping my fears are unfounded.
Fair enough. But you could go a long way toward assuaging your fears by recognizing that not every Islamic nation is the same, and that the sociocultural differences are often far more important in which way the country will go than the religion. That's not even going into the differences in the several branches of the religion, but I digress. An Egyptian is not a Bahranian is not a Turk is not a Libyan and is certainly not a Persian. It's not that difficult to learn a little bit about the respective cultures as we watch what's turning out to be a fascinating bit of history.
Gadhaffi says he wants to die a martyr sooner rather than later. I hope he gets his wish. Unfortunately, if there's anything we should have learned by now is that there is always somebody worse waiting in the wings.
Always? Napoleon was better than Louis XVI, even if he did try to conquer Europe. George Washington was better than George III, even if he did put down the Whisky Rebellion. Certainly the revolutions of 1848 weren't for naught... nor was Attaturk worse than the Ottoman sultans. Yeltsin, even Putin, were arguably better friends of liberty than any Russian leader since Kerensky. Are there eviler men with ambition? Sure, but it's far from a sure thing they'll succeed.
And I wasn't saying it's a foregone conclusion that the next government will be worse. It was in Iran (at least for our interests) and it was in Iraq. That doesn't mean I think it has to be that way. Right now even in Egypt it's no sure bet. It is interesting to think that Bush and company wanted Iraq to be a shining beacon of democracy around the middle east. As it turned out Tunisia played that role (at least in terms of people throwing out a dictator). Now of course, the popular uprisings with calls for real democracy are happening in the "wrong" countries and/or they're happening with no guarantees that the next government(s) will be any friendlier to us than the last. The genie is out of the bottle and all we can hope for is that things don't go completely south on us. Even if all these countries establish real democracies there are no guarantees they will suddenly become friendlier toward us. After all, they don't like us over there (in some cases because of Islamic fundamentalist rabble rousing in other cases for some pretty understandable reasons) and truly democratic governments that represent the people might not be on such great terms with us. I hope no one believes that I'm making any predictions one or another: this situation is way to fluid for me to dare make any concrete predictions.
At the very least, though, its fun to think of the Saudi Royals quaking in their thobes and wondering if they're next...
It's that Red Room corollary to Godwin's Law that says any topic eventually ends up with one of the Usual Suspects "OBAMESSIAH!!11!!"
The French government was always in deep with Gadaffi. They made us fly around their airspace to bomb Libya. Refuelers had to be filled up so much with fuel that they had to take off from the grass overruns on the end of the runways just to make takeoff speed. The Jet wash tore up a bunch of shit from that. One huge landing light broke loose and got impaled into the localizer array. Then they got on our asses to fix it in a hurry because the birds would be coming back in in a few hours. Long day and it proved that the French are certainly no ally of the USA.
