generalspeaking

Violent Lunacy in Libya

"We took control of the airport yesterday and today we have forced Zintan from their two remaining bases. The bases are now under our control."
Abubaker al-Huta, member, Libya Shield

Muammar Ghadafi is gone and with his ferociously controlling authority absent is also gone any vestige of control, order and normalcy in Libya. The fiction of having removed a tyrant, as dreadful as he was, to free the country from violence and mayhem had a short shelf life. When NATO decided to create a helpful free-air zone in aid of the motley militias representing a variety of competing and ruthless tribal, ethnic and sectarian groups it little understood what it was setting the stage for.

Islamist militias have succeeded in taking possession of the country's international airport. Why not, since they have taken control of the capital Tripoli, forcing the elected parliament to move to the eastern city of Tobruk, to conduct the nation's business and still remain alive in the process. The government itself has no national army, relying on the collaboration and good graces of militias to maintain public security.

These officially sanctioned as it were forces receive state salaries and they proudly wear distinguishing uniforms, but they report not to the government but to their own independent commanders. Armed factions fight among one another for control; chaos rules, there is no order, there is no normalcy, there is no public safety, but there is ample organized theft and looting and other crimes along with oppression of the vulnerable and there is competition between tribal militias.

A brutal contest for power rages in the capital between armed factions from rival cities and tribes. They are Islamists all, divided by some of a more secular and nationalist bent and those who are strictly and fiercely Islamist. The country's new parliament condemned the taking of the airport, characterizing the Islamist fighters who took it as "terrorists" from Misrata.

The Islamist-dominated body named the General National Congress is in business, its members, also part of the two main Islamist armed groups are effectively operating as a counter-government to the duly elected one. Unidentified warplanes have now bombed Islamist targets in Tripoli. A renegade general was suspected of having been involved, a loyalist from the time of Gadhafi waging a campaign against Islamists.

The air strikes hit the military bases of Islamist militias and seemed to have been conducted with a view to slow their advance on the international airport in Tripoli. While the Libyan air force denied it had anything to do with the airstrikes, and that was a reasonable denial since it hasn't the capabilities or technology required, suspicions were raised that foreign countries might be involved.

Italy, Algeria and Egypt have denied being the cause of the airstrikes, however, it appears that the escalating crisis in Libya has moved Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to carry out those airstrikes without the knowledge of the United States in an attempt to halt the crisis in Libya.

Arab and Muslim countries engaged in one paroxysm after another of self-destruction, committing atrocities on their own and shocking the world with the ferocity of their raging lunacy.

Labels: Chaos, Conflict, Egypt, Islamists, Libya, UAE

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, August 26, 2014