Article

2011-03-30 Africa North

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2011-03-30 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 She said that pro-Qadaffy forces were mostly using mortars and artillery, as opposed to the tanks and Arclight airstrikes of early advances.

Employing dismounts. He's catching on fast. It will soon be decision time for NATO. Boots on the ground... or no.

Posted by Besoeker 2011-03-30 01:18|| 2011-03-30 01:18|| Front Page Top

#2 PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > LIBYAN REBELS SHOUT, "SARKOZY, WHERE ARE YOU"? Libyuhn Rebs demand more air strikes from France + NATO to offset Uncle Muammar's huge advantage in Arty firepower.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2011-03-30 02:54|| 2011-03-30 02:54|| Front Page Top

#3 Employing dismounts. He's catching on fast.

A fairly unsurprising development, IMHO. Unlike government or civic administration where you can pass a law or resolution and be done with a problem, war is a game where your opponent gets to make a move in response to whatever you just did (assuming he is still on the board).

If I was K-Duck, in addition to the dismounts, I would be running death squads and secret police to take the head and heart out of the rebel efforts. Hard to monitor that sort of behavior with AWACS.

Posted by SteveS 2011-03-30 03:05|| 2011-03-30 03:05|| Front Page Top

#4 That pic is so subsaharan Africa.

Daffy clearly wants to the emperor of Wherethefuckisthatland.

The tradegy he ended up ruler of a place that actually matters. Not much, but enough to bring the AC130s and A10s down on him.

Posted by phil_b 2011-03-30 04:13|| 2011-03-30 04:13|| Front Page Top

#5 pro-democracy fighters to take it back.

I do not think that word means what you think it means.But go ahead - pawn off your wishful thinking on us. Just remember to confess your sin when you can't keep up with the story any more.

Posted by Bobby 2011-03-30 06:06|| 2011-03-30 06:06|| Front Page Top

#6 Sounds like this could keep going back and forth for quite some time and Daffy is settling in for the long haul. Think about it: long after Bummer has run back to Chicago with his tail between his legs, Daffy could still be in Tripoli. Let's see, Daffy in Tripoli or Bummer in the White House...which is worse?

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-03-30 11:48|| 2011-03-30 11:48|| Front Page Top

#7 It's not that I'm rooting for Daffy. There's no getting around the fact that he is a very bad guy. But it seems that all those smart guys in Europe and NATO thought he'd be an easy mark and now they're finding out he's not so easy. There's something satisfying about seeing arrogance meet with failure. Arabs will not love us if American and/or European troops put their boots on the ground in Lybia. They will see us either as chumps or crusaders.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-03-30 12:12|| 2011-03-30 12:12|| Front Page Top

#8 Are people thinking that "Libya == Afghanistan" and that we can win a cheap, bloodless (our blood), (did I mention cheap already?) victory with air power alone. Perhaps, but unlikely...

Robert A. Pape's Bombing To Win covers the issue of actors that just can not be coerced with airpower. The Taliban could, and did!, run off to Pakistan to plot dire revenge. Qadaffy and company have no similar place to run to and threats of War Crimes Trials will only drive them further into a Bunker Mentality.

Posted by magpie 2011-03-30 15:05|| 2011-03-30 15:05|| Front Page Top

#9 They will see us either as chumps or crusaders no matter what we do. It's hard-wired into their culture.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-03-30 15:07|| 2011-03-30 15:07|| Front Page Top

#10 That was...
Robert A. Pape's Bombing To Win
PIMF...

Posted by magpie 2011-03-30 15:11|| 2011-03-30 15:11|| Front Page Top

#11 Jeez, that picture makes Khdaffy Duck look like Mickey Rourke in the movie, 'The Wrestler'. And I do think that Khdaffy will outlast the 'rebels', simply because he has any number of actual ex-military employed as his mercs, who know how to fight as light infantry with mortar and artillery support. As opposed to the 'rebels', who seem to be proud graduates of the gun sex school of combat - emptying full 30 magazines into the empty sky, and grimacing threateningly, rather than bothering to aim at a target.

Posted by Shieldwolf 2011-03-30 15:52|| 2011-03-30 15:52|| Front Page Top

#12 There's something satisfying about seeing arrogance meet with failure.

Word.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-03-30 18:49|| 2011-03-30 18:49|| Front Page Top

#13 That is a good turn of phrase.

Posted by JohnQC 2011-03-30 19:00|| 2011-03-30 19:00|| Front Page Top

23:54 AzCat
23:26 JosephMendiola
23:24 USN,Ret
23:16 JosephMendiola
23:08 phil_b
23:03 JosephMendiola
22:49 gorb
22:43 Bright Pebbles
22:40 JosephMendiola
22:32 JosephMendiola
22:31 Besoeker
22:24 Charles
22:17 JosephMendiola
22:05 JosephMendiola
21:57 Frank G
21:42 JosephMendiola
20:59 Barbara Skolaut
20:55 Iblis
20:00 Glenmore
19:55 Steve White
19:55 JosephMendiola
19:47 JosephMendiola
19:31 Procopius2k
19:30 Bright Pebbles