Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The War For Libya Rages

Who would have guessed as of December last year that this kind of thing was possible?

An uprising, and a determined one,  from within Libya against strong man Ghadaffi?

A ruler whose name is indelibly part of 20th century global history on the verge of being ousted, not by a well armed force,not by the CIA and the customary devils but by people within Libya, ordinary citizens.

Wonderful...

I wish my father lived to witness this. It was through him I learnt about Ghaddafi from when Ghaddafi began to make his name in the 60s.

This seems to be the first of the Arab revolutions where the citizens have  fought back with military weapons and are operating like soldiers. How did they learn to use those weapons? How are they able to capture entire cities? How are they finding the courage to continue in spite of the assault by pro-Ghaddafi forces when they began as unarmed protesters in the first place? How come they reorganized their methods of rebellion so quickly from peaceful protest to armed resistance? Is anyone assisting these people? There seems to be a strong military mentality in action.

How are Bush and his neo-conservatives seeing all this? This is an outcome beyond the dreams of anybody and it is unfolding before our very eyes.

How would Yasser Arafat, Ariel Sharon, Moshe Dayan, the war horses who were central to shaping the second stage of the Israeli Palestbininan conflict-the first stage being the events that led to the founding of Israel and its early wars of survival, a period where Menachem Begin, Ben Gurion,Gamal Abdel Nasser and others were prominent-  have seen these developments?

I have not read it but I understand Karl Popper wrote the Poverty of Historicism in challenge of the Marxist vision of predicting history.

Can these revolutions be understood in Marxist terms? 

Plenty of writing  will be done and conferences held  in centuries to come on this great turning point in the history of the world which these revolutions might become.

I hope for revolutions in Palestine and Israel that will sweep out the hard-liners like the Netanyahus who live and breathe Israeli supremacist culture and Palestinians who are stiff necked, so that the Mideast-the Levant(?) will be under the control of its citizens, not political ideologues.

I pray the Western powers do not intervene in Libya. That will grant them a beachhead in the Middle East/ Levant that might make it easier to manipulate these peoples' uprisings to their advantage. Happily,Russia is arguing that such actions would be superfluous.

This analysis of mine is describing these revolutions as Arab not primarily African revolutions.

How valid is that? Does the greater cultural and political affinity between African Arabs with Arabs in the Middle East/ Levant justify that?

Can this wind of change blow into Africa beyond the Sahara or even into all those bastions of injustice elsewhere, where indigenous people have been marginalized, where powerful governments usurp others lands or manilpuate them as in Iraq, where both native people and external forces create chaos as the Taliban and the US in Afghanistan?

Who would have dared to hope that Ghaddafi could be fought and even outfought by his own people? 

The old saying is again confirmed- the only constant is change.

thanks

toyin

On 2 March 2011 11:06, Abdul Karim Bangura <theai@earthlink.net> wrote:

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 3:52:00 AM EST

Gadhafi forces bomb rebel-held town in east Libya

Photo: AP

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi retook control of a key oil installation and port on the coast of the rebel-held eastern half of the country on Wednesday and the regime's warplanes bombed an ammunition depot on the outskirts of a nearby town also controlled by the opposition, witnesses said.

The attacks appear to signal Gadhafi's forces are escalating a counteroffensive after government opponents over the past two weeks have seized control of the eastern half of the country and several cities and towns in the western half near the capital Tripoli.

On Tuesday, loyalists pushed back rebels from towns near Tripoli, where Gadhafi appears to be in full control. They also kept up military operations for a second straight day to try wrest control of Zawiya, the city closest to the capital which is in the hands of his opponents. But rebels, backed by mutinous army forces and their weapons, have managed to repel those attacks and hold on to Zawiya so far.

Ahmed Jerksi, manager of the massive oil installation in the eastern town of Brega on the Mediterranean coast, said pro-Gadhafi forces retook control of the facility at dawn without using force. Breqa is about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Libya's second-largest city Benghazi, the nerve center of the rebel-held east.

There are about 4,000 oil workers at the facility and there had been at least one checkpoint near the facility which was guarded by a small contingent of armed rebel forces from the area. But there were no reports of clashes between the two sides.

"It's not an attack. We are OK. The government troops came in to secure the whole area. Our concern is to maintain the facility," he told The Associated Press.

Witnesses said that a rebel force was marching on Brega.

Also Wednesday, warplanes bombed an ammunition depot on the outskirts of the rebel-held eastern town of Ajdabiya, a little more than 40 miles northeast of Brega and 85 miles (140 kilometers) south of Benghazi and also on the Mediterranean coast.

Libyan forces have launched repeated airstrikes during the two-week revolt but all of them have been reported to target facilities that store weapons in areas controlled by the rebellion. However, some air forces have said they bailed out because they were ordered to bomb civilians.

Witnesses told the AP they saw two warplanes bomb the eastern outskirts of Ajdabiya at 10 a.m. local time.

They also said pro-Gadhafi forces were advancing on the town, some 470 miles (750 kilometers) east of the capital Tripoli.

"I see two jets bombing now," said one witness who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals. Another witness said rebel forces were rushing to the western side of Ajdabiya to meet the advancing pro-Gadhafi force.

"We are ready to repel their attack," said the witness.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com