Thanks for the link Joe!
via Yahoo News.
Its almost like someone wanted to destabilize the region! Fantasy Island foreign policy is going to get even more people killed than even I imagined.
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| Tripoli International Airport during its better days....you know flights aren't being allowed into Libya...or if they are the FAA is on crack... |
via Yahoo News.
Tripoli (AFP) - Islamist fighters in the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition said on Saturday they have captured Tripoli's battered international airport after many days of clashes with nationalist militiamen.So Gaddafi was cooperating with the West, was taken off the terror list, had improving relations with Europe (especially Britain and Italy)...but we removed him from office anyway.
The claim followed a setback the previous night when a warplane raided Islamist positions, killing 13 fighters, a Fajr Libya spokesman said.
If independent sources confirm the airport has changed hands, it would be a major defeat for the nationalist fighters from Zintan west of Tripoli who have held the airport since the fall of long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
A statement shown on screen on An-Nabaa television, regarded as close to the Islamists, said: "Fajr Libya announces that it totally controls Tripoli international airport."
Its almost like someone wanted to destabilize the region! Fantasy Island foreign policy is going to get even more people killed than even I imagined.
There are seventeen thousand militias fighting for control of all or bits of Libya.
ReplyDeleteTerrorist is a pretty undescriptive term there at the moment.
Why?
Stupidity and ignorance
The EU is unable to believe that anyone thinks differently than it does.
Topple gadaffi and the Libyans will embrace EUology. Doesn't matter how often or where it fails, the belief is unshakeable.
Yep, that's exatly what my history professor said about Gaddafi. My history professor is well traveled and far more knowledgeable about history and politics than I am. Gaddafi cooperated with the west and we turned on him. He said that right now a lot of the middle eastern dictators were actually making intelligent decisions(that line with their morality of course).
ReplyDeleteAssad saw what happened to Gaddafi in the Arab spring and he immediately distanced himself from the west, locked up the borders of his county as best he could, and started ruthlessly killing his political enemies. He also kept arms purchases and some political ties with Russia because he knew that Putin would keep vetoing any new UN resolutions for "No Fly Zones" that suddenly turn into regime change missions.
Putin felt cheated by the resolution because he agreed to a "No Fly Zone" only and thought we would stick to it. When Gaddafi was toppled Russia lost billions of dollars in arms sales. There's a good chance that this is also why he has made no real effort to negotiate on Ukraine. He just doesn't trust the west to stick to their world and thinks we will only do things based on our own economic interest. (which in a way, he's probably correct to assume)
When there was a supposed chemical attack (which it seems no one has been declared responsible for yet) Russia blocked all our resolutions and Obama threatened act alone (which do NOT work out so well for him on the world stage). Russian and the US played a huge game that the Russians won and resulted in us backing down. What we've learned from this was that Assad and Putin were total geniuses is dealing with this crisis. Obama walked away shamed, defeated, and humiliated.
Putin's credibility is high, but he does not necessarily have a lot of popularity now because of Ukraine. One thing Middle Eastern dictorships can trust though is that Putin will veto any resolution the west attempts that will remove one of his allies, which is why when shit hits the fan for them you'll see a lot of them going into the arms of Mother Russia.
The best example of that today is Iraq. Shortly after we left them they started buying billions of dollars of Russian arms well before ISIL became a thing (I think they started in October of 2013). More recently, when we weren't fighting ISIL and not delivering F-16s to them soon enough the Iraqis went for some Su-25s with Russian pilots.
There is a huge shift right now in the Middle East and I think that shift is going to be heavily toward Russia in almost every possible outcome... unless ISIL wins the war, then ISIL will be the winners.
Supplemental reading
ReplyDeletehttp://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/unidentified-jets-attack-capital.25120657
The situation at the airport has been brewing for days and Marocco has deployed anti air missiles all around the country, including in city centers (see for exemple : http://www.cercledesvolontaires.fr/2014/08/18/missiles-et-campement-militaire-a-casablanca-le-maroc-en-etat-dalerte/ ), fearing they might be the target of 9/11 style strikes with captured planes
ReplyDelete