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| Africa North |
| Gaddafi Sends Army to Thwart Any U.S. Invasion |
| 2011-03-02 |
| [Tolo News] President Muammar Qadaffy has deployed forces to a western border region on Tuesday amid fears of US invasion into Libya. 82nd Airborne trembles, decides to go to the movies instead... While dismissing any armed revolt against his government, Libyan leader told US ABC and the BBC on Monday that "All my people love me. They would die to protect me". Following the United States' decision to move warships and air forces to the borders of Libya, Qadaffy's forces arrived in Dehiba southern border crossing on Tuesday and decorated the border post with Libyan flags. Dehiba is 60 kilometers from the town of Nalut and reports suggest that there was no Libyan forces' presence at the border area a day before. Libyan forces were deployed to reassert control of Nalut, 60 km from the Tunisian border in the west, to show that the city is not controlled by anti-Qadaffy protesters. Earlier on Monday the US announced that it was moving ships and planes closer to the country to help Libyan people trapped in the middle of a "humanitarian crisis". But President Qadaffy in a recent interview looked relaxed, laughing and mocking at the uprising. Qadaffy, 68, has run Libya, the biggest oil producing country in Arab world, for more than four decades. Saif al-Islam, the younger son of Qadaffy, has previously warned that his father leading the war would fight until the last man and woman standing. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 mojo:The problem with mercenary troops, as the Italians discovered long ago... Read your Machiavelli again, from the Varangian Guard to the Black & Tans it is mercenary commanders that cause the problems -- the mercenaries themselves can be very useful indeed. No local entanglements when you need an outsider to do a nasty job and then leave town afterwards... Frozen Al: IIRC, from Pollack's Arabs At War covering the Chad War the northern tribe allied to the Libyans was crucial to their early successes. Tough light infantry that handled all of the Libyan scouting and flank security. When they left, because of the usual dance of tribal loyalty/betrayal down there, the Libyans wandered blind into ambush after ambush. |
| Posted by: magpie 2011-03-02 18:27 |
| #5 Oh look. Gaddafi sends us targets. Ya know pal, they wouldn't even be a speed bump. Our tanks and APCs would destroy them while maintaining full throttle. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-03-02 13:07 |
| #4 Cyber Sarge, Actually his navy already left for Cyprus and Greece. The quality of his army can be gaged from the fact that the rebels have already retaken the territory they lost. As for the mercenaries, they seem to be from Zaire and the losers of the latest Chadian civil war. (How bad do you have to be to lose a war in Chad?) |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2011-03-02 12:01 |
| #3 The problem with mercenary troops, as the Italians discovered long ago, is that they're, well, mercenary. They tend to be more interested in getting paid than in dying gloriously for "the cause"... |
| Posted by: mojo 2011-03-02 11:17 |
| #2 Bad move deploying them on the border, they can simply desert over the border. To gauge the effectiveness of Momo's army, remember that he had to bring in mercs to suppress riots in his capital, his pilots refused to bomb or defected to Italy, and I am pretty sure the Navy will sit this one out. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2011-03-02 11:10 |
| #1 Again, IMO Muammar is wary that Radical Islam will roll back time + regress Libyuh unto histor backwardness. IMO HE WANTS TO SEE A DEAL, + NOT-A-DEAL WHERE HE IS THE ONLY ONE MAKING MAJOR CONCESSIONS??? NO DEAL = THE US-ALLIES WILL HAVE TO KILL HIM OR COVERTLY ASSASSINATE HIM, ETC. TO REMOVE HIM FROM POWER. NO DEAL = HE'S FINE-N-DANDY HAPPY WID ORDERING BRUTAL/ BLOODY REPRESSION AGZ THE REBELS, Killin' + Scorch-Earthin', Pillagin' + Murderin', everywhere he + Army goes. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-03-02 00:36 |