"These Are Dogs"
My, how good it felt to be among the good guys, helping out the brave and courageous unfortunates who worked themselves into a state of defiance against the tyranny of their long-time dictator. NATO forces, including Canada, at the behest of the United Nations contemplating a mass slaughter of protesting civilians in Libya, responded to the appeal of the rebels to create an air-free zone where they could feel protected from air assaults from the regime's warplanes.
Enabling them to get on with things, with assembling themselves into rag-tag battalions of rebel militias, armed with whatever they could manage to scrounge up. And lo and behold, the international community came to the fore, providing them with additional weaponry. And when they were successful in routing the regime's military in certain places they were able to 'liberate' the military's arms caches, further supplying themselves.
And the NATO allies took their position as protector seriously; offshore there were battleships, and in the air helicopters and warplanes to cover the backs, fronts and sides of the rebels who assembled themselves in their tribal ferocity and determination to unseat their leader of yet another tribe which had triumphed over the many others. NATO destroyed the tanks and artillery of the regime, to favour the rebels' onslaught.
Too late, the realization that among the rebel forces were infiltrations of rabid Islamists, some with ties to al-Qaeda. One murderous, scheming, terrorist-supporting dictator removed - yet again, in close reflection of Iraq's liberation from its murdering dictator - only to have the West witness at a remove the classic Arab/Muslim interplay of intra-tribal antipathy and sectarian violence.
And the true butter-icing on the cake of revelation was yet to come. It arrived in the guise of impassioned, irate Islamists outraged at the atrocity of defaced Korans being inadvertently burned by U.S. troops taking their remote revenge by smashing the graves of British and Italian soldiers buried in Libya where they fought, during the Second World War.
Canadians too are buried there, and the grave of a 21-year-old soldier from Toronto was destroyed as well. Graveyards in Benghazi were vandalized, with men kicking over headstones, using sledge hammers to smash a metal-and-stone cross.
"This is a grave of a Christian" was the comment that fully explained such bitter contempt. "These are dogs."
Enabling them to get on with things, with assembling themselves into rag-tag battalions of rebel militias, armed with whatever they could manage to scrounge up. And lo and behold, the international community came to the fore, providing them with additional weaponry. And when they were successful in routing the regime's military in certain places they were able to 'liberate' the military's arms caches, further supplying themselves.
And the NATO allies took their position as protector seriously; offshore there were battleships, and in the air helicopters and warplanes to cover the backs, fronts and sides of the rebels who assembled themselves in their tribal ferocity and determination to unseat their leader of yet another tribe which had triumphed over the many others. NATO destroyed the tanks and artillery of the regime, to favour the rebels' onslaught.
Too late, the realization that among the rebel forces were infiltrations of rabid Islamists, some with ties to al-Qaeda. One murderous, scheming, terrorist-supporting dictator removed - yet again, in close reflection of Iraq's liberation from its murdering dictator - only to have the West witness at a remove the classic Arab/Muslim interplay of intra-tribal antipathy and sectarian violence.
And the true butter-icing on the cake of revelation was yet to come. It arrived in the guise of impassioned, irate Islamists outraged at the atrocity of defaced Korans being inadvertently burned by U.S. troops taking their remote revenge by smashing the graves of British and Italian soldiers buried in Libya where they fought, during the Second World War.
Canadians too are buried there, and the grave of a 21-year-old soldier from Toronto was destroyed as well. Graveyards in Benghazi were vandalized, with men kicking over headstones, using sledge hammers to smash a metal-and-stone cross.
"This is a grave of a Christian" was the comment that fully explained such bitter contempt. "These are dogs."
Labels: Conflict, Human Relations, Islamism, Libya, NATO
posted by Pieface | 7:22 PM
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