Gaddafi's army will kill half a million, warn Libyan rebels

Source: The Guardian

Rebels flee Ras Lanuf and call on UN to impose no-fly zone as Gaddafi's forces recapture strategically important towns

Chris McGreal in Benghazi

Muammar Gaddafi's army won control of a strategic rebel-held Libyan town and laid siege to another as the revolutionary administration in Benghazi again appealed for foreign military help to prevent what it said would be the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people if the insurgents were to lose.

The rebels admitted retreating from the oil town of Ras Lanuf – captured a week ago – after two days of intense fighting and that the nearby town of Brega was now threatened.

The revolutionary army, in large part made up of inexperienced young volunteers, has been forced back by a sustained artillery, tank and air bombardment about 20 miles along the road to the rebel capital of Benghazi.

The head of Libya's revolutionary council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, claimed that if Gaddafi's forces were to reach the country's second-largest city it would result in "the death of half a million" people.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/12/gaddafi-army-kill-half-million

There are two bloodbaths--the one going on right now, using heavy weapons, armor, artillery, gunboats, and airstrikes; and the one that will follow if Gaddafi prevails. Reports out of Tripoli and Zawiyah indicate security forces already are quietly arresting protesters (not fighters) who were photographed at previous demonstrations or seen talking to foreign journalists. Residents have told reporters that those rounded up are never seen again...


Here's another link about fears in Benghazi:

Libya: Benghazi's rebels know it is now them or Gaddafi
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/12/libya-benghazi-gaddafi-revolution



"If Ajdabiya is taken, Benghazi will be next."

--AJE correspondent Nick Clark, reporting today from Tobruk.

This makes me so utterly infuriated, frustrated, dismayed and sickened that I'm literally stuck for words.

Basically Gaddafi is doing what we have done in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the world appears fine with it.

to Gaddafi that he might at some future date have to explain his actions to the Court in The Hague?

You want to deliver that subpoena?

it`s all about who is going to control the oil to italy and the rest of europe

Obviously this is a horrible tragedy and Qaddafi needs to die for what he's done.

But I don't see direct US intervention as the solution. Not only are we strained in terms of resources as is, but that would only reinforce the propaganda value of the official claims that rebels are simply foreigners trying to overthrow the government.

Also there is no guarantee that whatever government the rebels put together will be any better in the long run. I don't have any interest in indirectly supporting another Taliban.

Also the rebels have clearly stated they don't want foreign interference. They will only except help from Arab countries. It's their call, their fight and that's the way they want it.

They have been against troops on the ground from day 1 and have remained consistent in that position. For them "foreign interference" is troops on the ground.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/07/09/obama_shakes_hands_with_gaddaf.html

seems like we are not betting against Gaddafi

where was the No fly Zone concerns then?

We also need to hold elected officials accountable for their actions about this.

of Benghazi is half a million. Gaddafi's army certainly can't kill all of them even if they wanted to. If the goal is just to prevent civilian casualties,
the rebels can very easily achieve that by surrendering immediately or leaving the country. What nobody here dares to say is that the continued
loyalty of the bulk of Libyan army and security apparatus to Gaddafi can only be explained by him still commanding a broad support among the
people. All the calls for military intervention, no-fly zone, diplomatic recognition of the rebels, etc are based on the assumption that everybody
in Libya hates Gaddafi and wants him out. If that assumption were correct, it would have been over long time ago. Let me put forward another
possibility - what if Gaddafi is genuinely supported by a significant fraction of population? Nothing I've seen on TV or read in the news makes me
reject conclusively such a possibility. In that case how do all those suggested solutions and policies look? Like a cynical attempt to take advantage
of the situation to affect a regime change in another Arab country, that's how. And to sacrifice thousands of people in the process. Again.
What fraction of Libyan people does support Gaddafi? I don't know, but it is clear that at least some of them do. There are only two ways to find
out: (i) let them vote with their guns (since everybody has one there) and see which side prevails in the civil war - that seems to be the current
direction; or (ii) make them vote with their ballots, by forcing an all-Libyan UN-monitored referendum on Gaddafi's rule. That should be the goal
the international community unites behind and pushes for, not some stupid no-fly zones and embassy missions to Benghazi. That's the goal both
sides of this civil war may be persuaded to accept, for the sake of avoiding a bloodbath and saving the country and its unity. It will have to be
supplemented by a broad amnesty for the side losing the referendum including, yes, the Gaddafi family itself. Anything else will be sheer madness
resulting in either (i) Gaddafi's forces wiping out the opposition at great cost to human life and Libyan economy; or (ii) full-scale NATO invasion
of Lybia enacting the regime change, probably at only slightly smaller cost. Of those two possible outcomes the Western elites' clear preference is (ii),
since it ensures Gaddafi's ouster and they (the Western elites) don't care about the cost. I don't know why should the people in Western countries
have the same preference, but reading the DU post makes me think that they do.

No fly zone is not going to cut it.

When the protesters had control of Western Libya, we should have recognized them as a sovereign state.

Things would have gotten much more messy if Quadaffi had gone after them then...

The arty will be rendered highly ineffective.