Arab Uprising Update
"Libya is imploding," to judge from Twitter--or at least, there are many reports of rioting. (Anyone seen this anywhere but Twitter?)
Qaddafi has delivered something of a classic speech, even by his standards:
"I am very pained by what is happening in Tunisia," Gaddafi said in a speech reported by Libya's official Jana news agency.
"Tunisia now lives in fear ... Families could be raided and slaughtered in their bedrooms and the citizens in the street killed as if it was the Bolshevik or the American revolution," said Gaddafi, Libya's leader since 1969.
"What is this for? To change Zine al-Abidine? Hasn't he told you he would step down after three years? Be patient for three years and your son stays alive," Gaddafi said.
(By the way, this article--Thank you, Qaddafi, for the Janjaweed!--is well worth your time.)
This is from Libya. I can't read the caption or the comments--do we have any Arabic-speakers among us?
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Jul '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Colnel Gaddafi (he won't take the rank of General because Generals are Elitist.) is a product of Nassar and the old U.A.R.
He is also the architect of the original Arab Oil Embargo of 1973.
While I have trouble with him and his attitude toward the West, I do believe that he has tried (not necessarily successfully) to maintain a committment to doing what is best for the people of Lybia. (with some Soviet exceptions)
I will be interested to see if his leadership and direction has corroded over the years and the people of Lybia are looking to make a change.
That will be interesting.
Dec '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Claire -
You'll have to continue posting since to date there has been no significant reports regarding this on this side of the pond. Perhaps the Sunday talk circuit will bounce it around. Stay tuned. In the meantime --- is it just me or does that photo you provided of Colonel Qadaffi remind anyone else of one of the Beattles albumns namely - - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band..?
Edited on Jan 16, 2011 at 4:08amJun '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
If demographics are destiny, then the Arab world is in for some serious civil disorder. What happens when you have a surplus of young, idle, unmarried, unemployed males? Putting them on the dole is no solution (Mr. Sarkozy, you listening?); it only aggravates their sense of worthlessness. Male energy must be socialized and put toward something constructive. Left to itself without direction, masculine energy becomes destructive. Throw in a promise of 72 virgins and you get . . . well, we all know what you get. Is this not obvious?
Edited on Jan 16, 2011 at 5:30amDec '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
This might help: Libya protest over housing enters its third day
I found it via this Twitter account.
Always the helpful one...
May '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Next he'll be threatening to sow their fields with salt. Say what you will about the colonel, he knows his hot blonde nurses and comic opera uniforms.
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Douglas Pologe: This might help: Libya protest over housing enters its third day
I found it via this Twitter account.
Always the helpful one... · Jan 16 at 5:39am
I think she's in Latin America though, isn't she?
Jan '11
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Acknowledging that the Islamic world is far from homogenous, I've heard two polar opposite viewpoints - and all points in between. Some say Islamists are marching ever forth in lock step much like Birnham wood; whereas others state that the Islamist theocrats are modern Savonarolas, few in number, wide in influence, but in the last throes of trying to maintain control, inevitably doomed to fail. The human desire for freedom is often countered by a desire to look for heavenly influences determining destiny. Where are we at? Do people in Islamic countries want freedom and resent control? Is there a widespread acceptance of theocracy? Are there just a few restive souls, or are nations ready to shatter? I know there is not one answer due to the heterogeneity of people and the large areas of geography involved......
Dec '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
STRATFOR argues that post-colonial North African regimes have held onto power by exploiting fears of Islamist violence, controlling information to limit social mobilization, and providing a decent standard of living. With Islamists adopting democratic means, and information control becoming impossible, things are going to change.
They predict that relatively wealthy countries (eg, Libya), and those that have suffered severe Islamist violence (Algeria), will be most stable, and that Egypt, with the Muslim Brotherhood's political savvy, and its current succession problems, will be the most unstable. If the largest Arab country is the most unstable, that is very bad news, indeed.
Dec '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
My impression is that Col. Qaddafi is the type who's willing to kill as many of his citizens as necessary to preserve his own rule. It would have been better for the Libyan people to wait for Algeria and possibly Egypt to fall before taking on their own leader -- by doing it now, they risk the possibility of his drawing support from other North African autocrats to quash the revolt in his country.
Aug '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
(By the way, this article--Thank you, Qaddafi, for the Janjaweed!--is well worth your time.)
Am reading now.
Slightly disappointed to realize it doesn't mean the same thing as "Thank you, Qaddafi, for the Ganja Weed!"
Jan '11
Re: Arab Uprising Update
I, er uh, wouldn't go ahead and quote STRATFOR as gospel there. And seriously, no coverage of this outside of Twitter? Is this really not making a dent in the U.S. at all?
As for conflating Tunisia with Sarkozy, well, that makes as much sense as comparing Ireland to the U.S. Just because there are Tunisians in France doesn't relate Arab people there to Arab people in Africa. Things are, well, complicated.
As the Carpetblogger said: We promote Democracy and the power of the people. Islamists need not apply.
And if you seriously think some sort of Domino Theory of the Arab World, or otherwise conflate the USSR with a swath of land largely inhabited by a single ethnic group...what? Did Nasser revive his United Arab Republic as a strawman or something? Or is this the case of a slender group of the pie projecting their dreams on a country?
Edited on Jan 16, 2011 at 12:08pmDec '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Gospel? Of course not! Just one analysis, with an actual prediction, from a known and not unreasonable point of view. Also evidence that attention is being paid to the larger implications of events in Tunisia, even if not by mainstream media.
May '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
I've always thought there's something about pictures of Qaddafi that make him appear like a walking parody of himself.
Jul '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Just to get the counter off of 13....
Is it not interesting that it took the actions of an Arab Dictator, and not the U.S. to garner a REAL uprising of "The Arab Street?"
Aug '10
Re: Arab Uprising Update
Gosh, that's Qaddafi? I thought it was a homely woman in man-drag.