US General: Libya Stalemate More Likely Now

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(04-07) 08:07 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The U.S. general who led the initial phases of the Libyan mission says the operation is largely a stalemate and is more likely to remain that way now that America has transferred control to NATO.

Army Gen. Carter Ham says in a new tactic, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces are making airstrikes more difficult by staging military forces and vehicles near civilian areas such as schools and mosques.

MORE...

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/07/national/w080726D84.DTL

[dipsydoodle]

1. Gadhafi's crew are also boxing clever

by switching over to use of pickup trucks ala the Rebel crew - from the air their convoys become indistinguishable.

Maybe the umpire should make them wear red caps and blues caps to show which team is which like the religious war between opposing burger bar crews in Hawaii in Red Dwarf : the war between whom eventually ended the universe.

[Baclava]

2. I said that from the beginnning - all Toyota pick-ups with guns look the same from the air.

[Octafish]

3. General: 'Low likelihood' rebels could oust Gadhafi

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) -- A top U.S. general said Thursday he doubts that Libyan rebels could push into the nation's capital and topple Moammar Gadhafi, even with the NATO air cover.

"I would assess that as a low likelihood," said Gen. Carter Ham, the head of U.S. Africa Command. He answered questions about the opposition forces in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Ham also said that there would have to be "a better understanding of exactly who the opposition force is" before arms could be supplied to the rebels.

Assurances are needed "that those U.S.-provided weapons would not fall into the hands of extremist organizations," he said.


Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/07/libya.rebels/

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Looks like War Inc has found another nice, long slog.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. At some point the other nations of the world will have to form a NATO-like org against us

I'm sure there's already been talk.

[Octafish]

5. When I was a little kid, there was this new thing called the 'Peace Corps.'

The idea behind it was that we could make true and lasting friendships by helping the people of the under-developed world learn how to build schools, hospitals, homes, a modern economy. Since the death of President Kennedy, war has been -- apart from a few years under Democratic leadership -- pretty much our main method for getting other nations to go along with us.

[Baclava]

6. If we had half a billion dollars worth of 'peace bombs' to blow off we'd get some peace action

We'll make more, I promise

[classysassy]

7. Got Oil?

The Americans are coming.

[Javaman]

8. Check out this interview with Noam Chomsky regarding Libya from 3/30/11...

On Libya and the Unfolding Crises
Noam Chomsky interviewed by Stephen Shalom and Michael Albert
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20110330.htm

-read the whole thing but check out this quote:

6. What do you expect, in coming weeks, to see happening in Libya and, in that context, what do you think ought to be the aims of an anti-interventionist and antiwar movement in the US regarding US policies?

It is of course uncertain, but the likely prospects now (March 29) are either a break-up of Libya into an oil-rich Eastern region heavily dependent on the Western imperial powers and an impoverished West under the control of a brutal tyrant with fading capacity, or a victory by the Western-backed forces. In either case, so the triumvirate presumably hopes, a less troublesome and more dependent regime will be in place. The likely outcome is described fairly accurately, I think by the London-based Arab journal al-Quds al-Arabi (March 28). While recognizing the uncertainty of prediction, it anticipates that the intervention may leave Libya with "two states, a rebel-held oil-rich East and a poverty-stricken, Qadhafi-led West ... Given that the oil wells have been secured, we may find ourselves facing a new Libyan oil emirate, sparsely inhabited, protected by the West and very similar to the Gulf's emirate states." Or the Western-backed rebellion might proceed all the way to eliminate the irritating dictator.