The UN is the United Nations, think of it as the giant Negotiating Table of the World, NATO is a military side setup in the... seventies if I'm not mistaken. It's basically the Western Worlds international defence force. Google it chap.
Good, good. The argument that 'someone worse' (read 'Islamism') could take over was booted around in Egypt (Muslim Brotherhood) where, thus far, it hasn't come to fruition. It may well be that after this Libyans don't move straight to a Parliamentary democracy; after all, after years of Gaddafi there are no opposition parties and no political infrastructure. But the one thing we can be utterly certain of is that their chances of democracy are much, much higher without Gaddafi than with him. Not so. Please give an example of a large-scale democratic insurrection in the last ten years that the West has not supported? The distinction between Libya, Tunisia and Egypt (and hopefully Syria and Algeria too) is that these are not just civil wars, but grassroots uprisings. Yes, in the distant past - the 1968 Prague Spring being the most notable - the West has completely failed to support such movements, but in those cases there were extremely compelling reasons not to intervene - e.g., a furious USSR turning the Cold War up to about 10,000,000K. The situation in Libya is confused by the lack of a revolutionary council or similar to issue formal requests. In general, in the early days of this uprising there were pleas not to intervene because there was widespread fear that Western boots on the ground would turn the situation into another Iraq. Eventually (as the situation became more uneven) this became calls for the West to relevel the playing field by levelling the more advanced weapons we sold Gaddafi. The UK alone granted Libya 118 licences for arms transfer and sold him €109m worth of arms since 2005. This included; €283,942 ML1 Small Arms €3,088 ML2 Ammunition & Fuses €455,705 Chemical (Inc. Tear Gas) & Biological Weapons & Radioactive Material €26,163,548 ML11 Electronic Equipment, and, most crucially: €2,118,152 ML10 Military Planes €3,124,843 ML4 Bombs, Rockets & Missiles For a full rundown, see here. Mugabe's a scumbag who starves his own people. However, he was also a freedom fighter, who was jailed for 11 years by an apartheid government, and who was constitutionally elected (in pretty dodgy circumstances). He was immensely popular in his programs for social reform, and it is worth noting that the white farmers whose land he stole equally were themselves hangovers from apartheid when the whites owned everything and the blacks owned nothing. Here's the crucial distinction, though: Mugabe's kept his murderous ways within his own borders, like a good little dictator. Gaddafi's been a key proponent of international terrorism - the Lockerbie disaster was just one of many - for more than forty years. It's one thing to let a dictator screw with his own people, and quiet another when said screwing is exported to your front door.
NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Basically an alliance set up by America during the Cold War, comprising several Western countries, in response to the Warsaw Pact.
Sorry chap, that does come across quite "you fool" towards you. Not intended! Was just a "Google it chap!" I forget my jovial attitude and funny mannerisms cannot translate to the internet. Back on topic we all go...
mmm Rum Umm you realise the Cheiftan is at least 30 years behind the Challenger 1 right? The Chally 2 (mmm... *drools*) is a God-Machine that we wouldn't sell to any other country (Despite the fact they aren't even British made, well they are but aren't.) I think it's Oman who have the other ones and they've got around 1/5th of the Glorious machines! We sell 2nd gen tech. I.e. we'd sell LA85A2's when we upgrade to whatever next model rifle we do or it's precursor. We don't really keep a hold of them. Most militaries are the same. Oh man the Lethality kit? Jesus they basically stuck a new cannon on it and said "Here, go kill stuff". Beautiful ^.^
The Libyan State TV doing their usual bang-up deluded job, as the BBC reports: Libyan state TV has an original take on the march in London against government spending cuts. A screen caption reads: "Tens of thousands of British citizens out in mass protests now in front of the British House of Commons condemning the colonialist, crusader aggression against the Libyan Great Jamahiriyah."
LOL I am sure some of those lefty types are against it, not sure it runs into the tens of thousands. RUM Challengers Rock!!!
haha, oh god how I love Chally's... I'm bored... I'm going to climb up this 60 degree slope at 45mph spin my turret and balance on a 50cm long piece of ground... ...because I can!
Not been a good turn of events. The rebels pushed forward... then got massively pushed back and it looks to be almost back to square one. Now there's a lot of talk of the coalition arming the rebels, and the announcement tonight that Obama has authorised some sort of covert operation. It seems they all want Gaddafi gone but have realised the rebels by themselves won't win.
This could be good news. I wonder if it will be the start of the collapse of support for Gadaffi of his closest supporters?
Libya is pretty much a one man show so I doubt it will have large impact. Unless members of his extended family start to defect he will carry on. It has been reported that America will be sending AC130 Spectre gun ships to Libya. Spotters to direct close air support would account for the 'agents' on the ground.
Though this thread could do with a update, since recent events suggest that Nato is coming into a stalemate, with its air campaign, though with this latest title from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13397327 Not about time we dropped a missile on his head and got rid of the idiot, as he wont have a role in Lybia, once the rebels take the country.
