Taking Sides

"The sun has risen and the darkness has been removed and the truth will prevail."

The truth is, in this instance of time and place which will eventually take its part in history that a devious, implacable and vicious tyrant has been destroying the lives of his own people, those who have lived for 42 years under his rule as the "King of Africa". These are the people who appear to have determined for themselves that they will no longer live as crushed and repressed people without the civilizing and needful benefits of basic human rights.

Their revolt, inspired by liberty-inspired revolutionary zeal expressed by other rebels in other countries of the near-geography, in Africa and in the Middle East, has resulted in a punitive back-lash that has raised the indignant ire of the world. Of the West, and of some parts of the Arab and Muslim world, in any event. Some of whose governments were prepared to take action beyond expressing dismay and anger.

The 'leader' of the free world, the United States of America, imperiously instructed Moammar Gadhafi that he must 'step down' instanter. That message was just as imperiously flicked off the radar. Watch me and learn by my example, he effectively informed the world. And the rebels whose amazingly audacious and determined blow-back against the tyrant in capturing and holding Benghzi and other Libyan cities, kept advancing.

But then the metal gauntlet of Gadhafi's brutal and stifling reign was thrown down and the rebels finally understood that their assembled arms and defences were like children's toys against the armoured vehicles, gun ships, artillery, mechanized armoured vehicles, warplanes of the government forces. The civil war that ensued saw a speedy retreat, and desperate refugees trying to escape the war zones.

And then, fearful Libyans who gathered themselves about television sets, witnessed the United Nations Security Council voting through resolution 1973 and hope blazed anew. Their tyrant proclaimed the resolution "invalid", yet on the strength of the potential, assured the world that a ceasefire was in effect, while his troops were ordered to strafe and bomb and kill civilians in the towns of Ajdabiya, Misratah, Zawiyah and Benghazi.

The rebels, attempting to defend Ajdabiya, had suffered many losses, and the euphoria that had fed their determination to succeed in the upheaval of the dark forces of tyranny turned to fear as they were pushed back to 140 kilometres from Benghazi, their main stronghold. And the government warplanes flying over Benghazi let loose their bombs there too. Promising to lethally punish all who were involved in the revolt.

"They said we just had to keep going until we got the no-fly zone. this week people started to think it would never come. I don't know how much longer we could have held on."

They did, and it did. And as the G8-member Paris meeting to discuss the situation and the members' involvement wound up, President Nicolas Sarkozy grimly asserted that France would intervene momentarily. Then twenty French military planes bombed military installations in Tripoli. The United Kingdom hot on their heels to do their part to neutralize government tanks and artillery.

Not to be undone the reluctant United States stated that cruise missiles aboard their ships in the Mediterranean were placed on active alert. Col. Gadhafi now knows of a certainty that his bluff has been called. He can no longer play for time. His ferocious onslaught of the rebels is being met and rebuffed and his armour destroyed.

This is meet and this is just. And then one's mind lingers on Darfur/Sudan, on Rwanda, on Iran; why here, not there?