Africa's Rainbow Nation

Nobility of spirit is a rare commodity so that when it modestly exhibits its presence it takes people aback, they sit up, they take notice, they applaud. The team of Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu transformed the spirit of South Africa. Of course they had a little help from their friends, countries like Canada which undertook to exert diplomatic and trade embargo pressure on the Apartheid government.

And South Africa was also indebted to its neighbours, like Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Angolans who kindly gave shelter to black South Africans fleeing the violence of their country during the paroxysms that finally led to the surrender of the country by the ruling white Afrikaans back to the rightful owners, black South Africans. At which juncture Mr. Mandela was finally freed from prison and governed his country offering equal rights to all.

And Bishop Tutu presided at the spectacle that became a healing circle called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where victims gave witness to the unspeakable and the suffering, and violators confessed their sins and all was forgiven. And the country settled in to become other than what it had been, with an honoured place for all and promises of housing and jobs.

A noble dream to be sure. What happened next was a slow, agonized climb in the resolute determination to become a fair and free society, but it was fairer and freer for some, not all, and endemic poverty was scarcely relieved, and decent living conditions still eluded in the slums. And tribal antipathies proved as resistant to enlightened thought as the moneyed-class system.

Where wealth could be achieved, but it had to be lived behind barbed wire and stone walls, sheltered from the crass thievery of the mobs who would take advantage if they could, of the riches known to reside there, protected by armed marksmen. So it is not they who are targeted, but the easier prey, the poor, murdered, their scant belongings looted, children violated.

One of the most crime-ridden, violent societies on Earth now; most unfortunate. And what is particularly notable is the resurrection of ancient primitive tribal and clan hunts. Where South Africans armed with chains, spears, whips, axes, cudgels, shovels, metal sticks; just about anything serviceable to the purpose, set out to hunt down defenceless refugees.

People who have fled the dangers in their own countries, from Mozambique, Angola, Nigeria, Somalia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. There are said to be over three million Zimbabweans seeking haven in South Africa. Robert Mugabe's people amidst their home-grown tribal 'misunderstandings', prefer to flee to where they might stand a chance of survival.

Even though they are hunted mercilessly by South Africans for whom an evening of blood games, of looting, beating, killing, raping, provides entertainment and a purpose in life.

From the time of Apartheid's Soweto killings and Winnie Mandela's sporty bodyguards under her direction abducting Stompie Moeketsi, a 13-year-old boy to torture and "necklace" him to the present where the very nationals who had once offered protection to South African asylum seekers are now set on fire for the entertainment of the mobs.

Even the retired Desmund Tutu who entreats South Africans to "Please, please stop! These are our sisters and brothers. We can't repay them (for their past support of desperate South Africans fleeing violence before the end of apartheid) by killing their children", exercises his conscience in vain, for no one hears, and none are interested.

"They set you alight ... and laugh at you while you are burning. It's so shameful right now to be a South African, seeing all these things happening here, while claiming to be a rainbow nation, after all the struggles that our parents have gone through."

In For a Penny, In For a Pound

Britain is weighing the potential of sending British military officers to aid Libyan rebels. No, this is not quite what the UN's no-fly resolution outlined, this is an additional initiative. Because, as it happens, the 'no-fly' mission has not succeeded as it was meant to do, in dislodging Moammar Gadhafi from power, though the UN resolution did not envision that, either.

"There is going to be no ground invasion of Libya", however, British Foreign Secretary William Hague assured his critics. Like Russia, most heartrily disgruntled over this new turn of events. This unauthorized extension and flagrantly illegal enlargement of the UN-mandated, NATO mission. Not to be concerned, Britain says, a mere ten senior officers to be sent to Benghazi to help form a useful fighting force.

For there has been no discernible progress whatever by the rebels. And government forces are battering Misurata, shelling the population, using cluster bombs, so the hospitals there already facing shortages of medicines and supplies are desperately digging shrapnel out of the bodies of children and women; those who have survived those attacks and the sharp eyes of snipers' fire.

And how can civilized countries look on and not be moved by the plight of the Libyan rebels? They are, after all, only claiming what is rightfully theirs, the human right to live as free and proud peoples, not subjugated to the vagaries of a despot's intentions for their wherewithal? They want liberty, they want to be able to live in freedom.

"Before we were asking for no foreign interference, but that was before Gadhafi used Grad rockets and planes. Now it's a life or death situation", explained one rebel leader. Harking back to that time not so very long ago when the rebels were joyously celebrating their quick advances, contemplating marching on to Tripoli and unseating Gadhafi. When they insisted they wanted no foreign troops among them for this was their home-made rebellion.

"We did not accept any foreign soldiers in our country, but now, as we face these crimes of Gadhafi, we are asking on the basis of humanitarian and Islamic principles for someone to come and stop the killing", explained the senior member of Misurata's governing council.

The West has its ears cocked, it is listening. Amazing that the Islamic principles of which he speaks causes no helpful, compassionate, useful response from Arab and Muslim neighbours.

"What the no-fly zone has effectively become is the air force of the rebels", an unhappy Conservative Party British parliamentarian observed, as his country prepares to invest more deeply in the humanitarian and Islamic principles mission.

Where the Islamic principles enter the situation is the presence of al-Qaeda and fundamentalist Islamists fighting with the insurgents and awaiting the rebellion's conclusion.

Another Urban Myth...

But one of monumental proportions in its incendiary lighting of a liberation candle that burned its way around the Arab and Muslim world. Long-simmering resentment of the iron grip of dictators on the lives of people under totalitarian rule erupted in a firestorm of unstoppable rebellion. The catalyst for the momentum fairly basic; not necessarily the freedom that was later espoused, but the lack of employment for the young and inexorably rising basic food prices.

Even where food staples were subsidized, it was not enough to keep gnawing hunger at bay. As energy and transportation costs rose, so too did food costs. And restless young people with no gainful employment have a propensity to seek out meaning in their lives. In the absence of responsibilities because they cannot afford housing, a wife, a family, they turn their attention to brainstorming a rebellion.

Once exceedingly difficult to accomplish under the watchful eye of a police state, made so much more accessible with the instant-transmission miracle of the Internet, cellphones and social networking sites, along with readily available news coverage become commonplace. Conspiracies to unsettle the status quo could be accomplished, alerting accomplices to a workable strategy to confront the oppressors.

And so began the domino effect of a peoples' awakening to their human rights. First in Tunisia, then Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, (Iran), Algeria and Saudi Arabia. Some successful in seeming to dislodge the canker that made life so miserable for the masses, others creating an actual or a prospective civil war with the loss of lives expendable to their elite governors.

But did it all begin when an officious policewoman insulted the dignity of a young street vendor? Popular modern romantic legend would have it so. And, after all, Fadia Hamdi, the policewoman, was ordered jailed by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali before he was forced to exit the scene. However, a court heard her plea: "I'm innocent. I did not slap him", and discharged her.

And Mohamed Bouazizi's mother, Manoubia, explained her position before the court: "I leave things in God's hands. For me, it is enough that Mohamed's martyrdom has resulted in freedom and the fall of tyrants." Causing hundreds gathered outside the court to cheer as charges were dropped, shouting "Freedom, Freedom!".

However the protesting maelstrom is not yet fully concluded. The detested dictators that were opposed and deposed are gone, true. But this is the world of modern, political Islamism where the fanatics are in the ascendancy. And people may just discover that the kind of theocratic political tyranny that Iran is burdened with will become their own.

The Peoples' War

They were described as ordinary people, store owners, doctors, lawyers, clerks. People with one thing in common. They were fed up with living in a police state ruled by a tyrant with little resort to basic human rights and they weren't prepared to take it any longer. They had the example of Egypt, their populous neighbour in North Africa which had undergone a successful revolt of the ordinary people against their far more tolerant dictator.

And before Egypt, Tunisia.

So why not Libya? The rulers of Egypt and Tunisia had some compunction about conducting a reprisal campaign of mass murder against their own people. Their own ruler is possessed of a far less troublesome conscience. He was and is more than prepared to sacrifice as many Libyan lives as necessary to beat back the revolutionary zeal. The initial days of the rebels' attacks against government forces were surprisingly successful.

Encouraging the rebels to forge on, determined to reach success and eventually Tripoli, to unseat Moammar Gadhafi, his family and his supporters. Encouraged even further by the defection of key government ministers, diplomats and military personnel. They were on a roll to successfully combating Gadhafi and his forces and reaching the victory of the deserving.

The outside world looking on was perturbed at what they saw and what they anticipated was yet to come. A certain slaughter of civilians. So France and Britain urged the UN Security Council to condemn Moammar Gadhafi and to exact sanctions. And finally a no-fly zone, which China and Russia abstained from voting for, but did not defeat.

The rebels were overjoyed, knowing that foreign intervention in the form of fly-overs that would target government planes, helicopters, armoured vehicles and tanks that were bombing, strafing and attacking them would decimate the Libyan armaments. They were equally adamant that they had no wish to see foreign troops on their land.

This was their war, and they would be more than adequate in numbers and determination to successfully prosecute it.

That was then, when they were fully confident, fully zealous and fully motivated to their task. Now, the Libyan rebels who cheered on lustily with news that NATO had taken over responsibility for enforcing and co-ordinating the no-fly zone and wiping up Col. Gadhafi's mechanized artillery, are well and truly embattled.

And bitter that the advantage they anticipated would result from NATO intervention has not yet won the war for them.

While the intervention has enabled them to certain advantages, the successfully aggressive push-back from government forces has disabled their progress. And they are now accusing the NATO-led air mission of not sufficiently aiding them. While NATO's chief of allied operations claims the alliance is doing all it can to protect civilians under the UN mandate, the rebels are bitter.

They are furious over their loss of territory at the advance of government troops; the loyalists' artillery barrages are too fast and furious for them, causing them to fall back from their early advances. This is a stinging reversal. "There is no revolution without setbacks", sighed a spokesman for the Transitional National Council.

Which hasn't stopped them from berating NATO for not accelerating attacks and bailing them out of their dilemma.

Turkey's Humanitarian Ships

Turkey, which displayed great reticence at the prospect of NATO entering the situation in overseeing the UN-mandated no-fly option over Libya to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Gadhafi's forces against the militias of the regime's opposition, is playing its humanitarian card.

The Turkish government felt there was no need, originally, for any kind of intervention in what was turning into a civil war in Libya.

Germany and Turkey felt it would be rash to become involved in a protective venture that France and Britain were anxious to become involved with. Now Germany remains disgruntled that a potentially long and costly intervention has been undertaken by NATO, and Turkey has dispatched a hospital shop to Libya to do its part in the protection of Libyan civilians - and opposition forces.

It sent a transformed car ferry, now a hospital ship, the Ankara, to remove injured Libyans from Misrata into Benghazi, en route eventually to Turkey for extended hospital care. The Ankara and its medical crew received a resounding ovation as it arrived in port. "Allahu Akbar!" cried the Libyans waiting on shore, ecstatically.

Young and old men lay on blankets on the decks of the ship. People with limbs amputated, in wheelchairs, shrapnel-wounded, bandaged heads and limbs and torsos. "I was devastated, I never thought it would be like this" one of the 15 Turkish medics on board the ambulance ship said. "We weren't expecting this number of injured. We were prepared for 100 to 150 but we took more than our capacity out of humanity."

"I want to go back. I want to fight again. I want to kill Gadhafi", said one man, lying disabled on the deck of the Ankara. Turkey aiding another Islamic country, a neighbour in need. Pure compassion; response to a humanitarian crisis. It can then be assumed that Turkey is capable of recognizing Moammar Gadhafi as a tyrant, exploiting his people for far too long.

Although that fact never did quite stop any members of the Arab League from supporting Gadhafi at their many meetings. Nor has it ever been known that Gadhafi was ever confronted by any of the other Arab or Muslim leaders on his disturbing record. And Turkey was not known to have considered Col. Gadhafi previously as unfit to govern.

Nor does Turkey see Hamas as unfit to govern the Gaza Strip and Gazan Palestinians. For that matter the same could be said of Turkey's view of Syria and Iran, both countries run by tyrannies, both exploiting their people, both human-rights abusers. And Turkey is proudly prepared to launch another ship, in fact a flotilla of ships, for yet another humanitarian mission.

The same state-approved Turkish "humanitarian" group, IHH, a known Islamist organization along with a number of left-wing European groups stand prepared to send yet another flotilla to the Gaza Strip in May. Following to the month an earlier flotilla led by the Mavi Marmora which had aboard armed Islamists who had attacked and wounded Israeli marines who boarded the ship as neared their coastline.

And which event caused an international furor of condemnation of Israel when its marines, in seeking to defend themselves, shot dead some of the armed rebels who were attacking them. In the guise of a humanitarian mission to bring supplies and relief to Palestinians living in Gaza, when the obvious object of the mission was to confront and challenge the right of a sovereign country to protect itself from the violent actions of a terrorist group, Hamas.

Mavi Marmara - AP ">	Turks greeting the return of the Mavi Marmara last month.
	Photo by: AP

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon will summon foreign ambassadors to the ministry today to seek their help in stopping this year's flotilla, which is slated to contain at least 15 ships. The sailing date has not yet been finalized, but the ministry expects it to be sometime between May 15, when the Palestinians commemorate the "Nakba" ("catastrophe" ) of Israel's establishment, and May 31, the anniversary of last year's deadly interception.

Turkey is on a humanitarian roll.

"It Is Almost a Certitude"

"The question we can't answer is: Are they 2% of the opposition? Are they 20%? Or are they 80%?"
"It is almost a certitude" says a former CIA expert with the Brookings Institute, that some portion of the Libyan opposition is comprised of al-Qaeda members.

In Libya the rebel opposition has been experiencing some setbacks. Among which are some losses. Among which are disagreements between the leaders of the opposition. Among which has been the suspicion among those who are weighing the risks of providing weapons to the rebels. Among which, tellingly, is the fact that the rebel militias are disorganized, untrained, basically without weapons capable of counteracting those of the Gadhafi forces.

One might assume that the regime's military defectors should be capable of some on-the-spot training so that some kind of discipline and cohesiveness could be achieved but such doesn't seem to be the case. Although it is a tall order, to haul together the ragtag army of people from ordinary walks of life who have no familiarity with arms and fighting, aside from a desire to defend themselves.

So the counterattacks of the rebels against the government forces, well trained and armed and determined to do Colonel Gadhafi's bidding remain at a clear disadvantage. But there is another, hidden element there, one that no one connected with the insurgency has any desire to underline to cause suspicion and draw support away from them.

That they have, without doubt, either been infiltrated or have been combined with at the outset, Islamists, those who are well accustomed to fighting, having done so in Iraq and Afghanistan and anywhere that the Taliban and al-Qaeda make their presence in challenging the Western presence.

And there, then, is the twofold challenge facing the NATO-run Western/Arab alliance.

That Gadhafi himself has cleverly - or his military hierarchy has - recognized the need to camouflage themselves to protect against NATO-led air strikes. To that end, they have taken the measure of abandoning their armoured vehicles and tanks in opposing the opposition forces and begun to use instead the same kind of pick-up trucks fitted with weapons, confusing those monitoring the no-fly zones.

How to tell the regime opposition from government forces from the air? The greater mobility also allows them to use their artillery, their mortars to great advantage without fear of being bombed from above.

"When Gadhafi's forces are close to the civilians we hope to safeguard, the utility of our air power is greatly reduced, but they retain the ability to use artillery, mortars, and ground troops."

And then there is the troubling facts on the ground. That U.S. intelligence knows there is al-Qaeda activity within the rebel groups in the country. NATO's operations commander affirmed that, following al-Qaeda's third-ranking official's issuance of a video on jihadist Internet sites urging that Islamists take up arms against Col. Gadhafi.

So isn't that a paradox to puzzle the curious mind? NATO and Western powers, along with those Arab states who have invested in removing the scourge of Libya are battling alongside al-Qaeda. The very group whose main agenda is the disablement by any means possible, of Western democratic society, is linked with them, in a struggle to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi.

It is clear what the NATO/Arab group means to achieve in giving assistance to the rebels whom they initially assumed were entirely comprised of Libyan civilians whose tolerance for tyranny had expired. It is, on the other hand, equally clear what al-Qaeda means to achieve, in responding to the opportunity to take advantage of this unforeseen struggle.

Primacy in destroying current regimes and replacing them with their global agenda.

They have already been enabled by the chaos that has overtaken the country, to avail themselves of explosives for the manufacture of more improvised explosive devices for roadside bombs. Libyan rebels - or their al-Qaeda counterparts - have been able to take possession of 12 warehouses brimming with anti-vehicle mines in Benghazi and to loot another 35 warehouses of munitions in Ajdabiyah.

"Bin Laden has proved adept at exploiting civil wars and strife in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq, among other countries." Initially working with local fighting groups challenging national authority, they have extended the struggle to a more global positioning. So who is leading whom to the brink of disaster yet again?

How Many Slaughered?

It is a sad reality repeated endlessly that Africa does not appear to be capable of transcending its primitive past. The continent experiences great ongoing difficulties in hauling itself out of humanity's dark beginnings when tribes and clans viewed one another with violent, jealous, antipathy. The need to secure territory, food and security over-rode all other existential values; they were the only imperatives.

That primal inheritance claims too large a portion of modern Africa's ambivalence toward rationality and civility. One country after another succumbs to the human blight of reinstating their original antipathies toward others not of their territory, their clan, their tribal inheritance. The fall-back position in oppositional events are clarified by violent riots, by massacres, by removing the irritants through death and destruction.

One element claims the high ground, that through an orderly democratic process, their candidate has won fairly. And the other candidate, often enough a sitting president, refuses to recognize the outcome of the vote, and will not step away from office making room for his successor. There is Zimbabwe, there is Kenya, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sierra Leone and there are many others who have taken this route.

And latterly there has been Ivory Coast. Where President Lawrence Gbagbo refused to leave his comfortable post, and where his rival insists he must,and where supporters of each have waged a civil war against one another. Alassane Ouattara's supporters and militias now have the upper hand, marching on to Gbagbo's residence, where he will be removed forcibly and he and his family dispatched.

Mr. Ouattara, a civilized man with a Western-style education and business background, has given firm orders that Mr. Gbagbo is to be taken alive. If at all possible. For he must stand trial for his adamant refusal to step aside for Mr. Ouattara to take power, occasioning in the process the bloody civil war that has taken far too many lives. This is the high ground.

And it is a pity, and a grave concern indeed that Mr. Ouattara's militias have been busy wreaking their vengeance on their rivals, with the discovery by aid workers of a mass grave in a town that fell to troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara. A massacre of civilians that took place expeditiously with the taking of the town where people were shot, hacked with machetes, buried.

This was one of many massacres. It was also a massacre that need not have taken place. For it occurred with the presence of United Nations troops. The International Committee of the Red Cross announced its staff were informed by locals of the inter-communal violence. That violence commenced immediately Ouattara's forces took control of the town.

Usually, when the United Nations sends troops and peacekeepers in Africa, it is African volunteers from other African countries who are dispatched. They know all about inter- communal violence.

What If?

It's not all that far a stretch of probability. It happened in Afghanistan with the U.S. and Pakistan conspiring to aid the mujahadeen, training and arming them to confront Soviet forces in the invasion of Afghanistan. And those mujahadeen formed the core of the Taliban which then ruled Afghanistan when the Soviet troops left.

And from among the mujahadeen another corps was formed, that of al-Qaeda. The alliance between the Taliban and al-Qaeda was a natural one.

And the flaming enmity of al-Qaeda toward the West and specifically the United States became the most evident turning point of the Islamist revival. Which has since spread incorrigibly throughout the Muslim world. The Islamists have succeeded in overturning moderate Islam to reflect a fundamentalist, fanatic version of Islam which conducted its own internal war within the ummah.

Islamists who fought in Afghanistan were recruited from all over the Muslim and Arab world. Many of them returned to their source, and one of those sources was eastern Libya. In 2009 a Canadian intelligence report described eastern Libya as an "epicentre of Islamist extremism", where "extremist cells" were well represented.

Canada's Integrated Threat Assessment Centre identified "several Islamist insurgent groups" based in mosques in Benghazi, urging its members to fight in Iraq. They are suspected of having infiltrated the ranks of the rebel forces now battling Moammar Gadhafi's forces. And, like a nightmare recurring, the United States, Britain , France and Qatar are considering arming the rebels.

A recently-convened conference of 40 governments and international bodies reached agreement to continue the NATO-led aerial bombing of Libyan forces, hoping to force Gadhafi to comply with the United Nations resolution to end its violence against its civilians. The conflict in Libya is between the West and the East of the country; a tribal conflict.

In many of the cities that rebound from government control to rebel occupation and then back again, there are citizens who battle on the government side, against the rebel forces. This is a country that has been riven by clan warfare and tribal antipathies, a reflection of what exists in every Arab and Muslim country globally.

It is into this melee that the West has intervened, focusing on the presence of a maniacal tyrant determined to continue his personal ownership of a country, violating the human rights of his own exploited people, celebrating his ownership of the proceeds of the country's natural resources. In the West this is considered moral anathema; in the Middle East it reflects tradition.

International aid agencies are on the scene, concerned that the conflict has cut off medical supplies, water, electricity and food to countless civilians. The focus of concern from within the international community and the reason for their involvement has been the security and safety of the civilian population. But the civilian population appears fractionated by loyalties, further complicating matters.

And through all of this, while the West and their Arab and African state allies remain anxious to have Western powers involved and commit to what they will not, Moammar Gadhafi keeps insisting that he is concerned for his peoples' welfare: "Stop your brutal and unjust attack on our country ... Hundreds of Libyans are being killed because of this bombardment. Massacres are being mercilessly committed against the Libyan people."

And on their part, the spokesmen for the rebels deny al-Qaeda links, despite damning admissions seen elsewhere. And the head of the U.S. European Command informs the U.S. Senate that American intelligence on rebel forces, while demonstrating some involvement of al-Qaeda or Hezbollah, they are lacking "detail sufficient to say there is a significant al-Qaeda presence."

The Devil We Know

The Western world, once again agape with disbelief at the suddenness of the implosion of dysfunctional, brutally autocratic regimes in the Arab and Muslim world, are quick to respond to appeals for assistance from the very populations who enjoy professing their contempt for the West and all its institutions, governments and societies.

We are so easily led, we of Judeo-Christian heritage leavened with Greek philosophical undertones, rising to the occasion with alacrity, despite residual doubts, prepared to sacrifice and to do all within our means to aid and assist the underdog. Even the underdog that snarls and snaps and occasionally makes the opportunity to viciously bite the hand so eager to come to its aid.

The same al-Qaeda that carefully planned and executed one bloody atrocity after another on the world of the West, enjoys great respect and admiration in the very world to whom we respond when the piteous cries for help ring out. And al-Qaeda is able to recruit from among those whom we shelter, give citizenship, education and lifestyle opportunities to.

NATO has now accepted the hot potato of negotiating the guidelines of the United Nations resolution that permitted entry of 16 Western coalition countries over the skies of Libya in a rebel-protective role to ensure that Libyan government troops not slaughter them, much as has been done in the past in Iraq, in Iran, in Syria, in Jordan, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia.

The hope is that the Arab League, which views NATO and the West with great distaste as Crusaders and interfering infidels, will acquiesce to the expectation that they too will enter the fray, adding a kind of regional, political, religious, social legitimization to the no-fly coalition.

Paradoxically, the rebel commanders have allowed that they have among them members of al-Qaeda.

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader".

The detested devil you know in the guise of brutal dictators so often turns out to be the lesser of two evils, the second of which eventually emerges when the dust of war settles and the original devil is ousted, permitting the successor devil to advantage himself while demonstrating his credentials far outstripping the original in evil intent.

A Big Mess

It appears as though the Middle East and Africa have been infected with the bug of social-political conflagration. As one nation after another observes what is happening with their neighbours and discontent piles upon discontent. Long-stifled resentment of authoritarian rule and lack of basic liberties and human rights have simmered for too long. Built to the point beyond anger and desperation people have begun to realize that they can and will protest.

Each of the countries is different, with varying degrees of repression and exploitation of their publics. Each of the administrations reacts differently in small, rather than large part. As the protests simmer and grow, their countries' leaders react cautiously with promises to consider the source of discontent and to listen to the peoples' disgruntled demands. Those countries for whom riches resulting from petroleum sales can purchase loyalty, do so.

Some leaderships make a real effort to meet the protest demands in part, to stifle further dissent. The moderate regimes react moderately. The brutal ones react as might be expected. In either instance the people are emboldened. Only in Iran, at present, is the opposition stifled to a surprising degree; the surprise being the unwillingness of the population to sacrifice themselves further in a regime which has no scruples about its willingness to kill.

Other regimes are far more stealthy about their killing intentions. For them the trouble is that Internet access makes secrecy far less possible than it was a decade earlier. Now, with access to social networking sites, and with the easy availability of cameras and cellphones it takes but an instant to document and relay real-life drama to alert the world of what is occurring.

From Tunisia to Egypt, Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, Algeria to Jordan, Libya to Syria and Yemen, the Arab and Muslim world is turning itself inside-out. The initiators of these little revolutions claim to be eager to see their countries become more liberal, democratic, freer, less corrupt, lawful. And it is entirely possible that what will result from the revolts will inevitably become otherwise. For the simple fact appears to be that fundamentalist Islamism is on the rise.

Some choice these people have; unscrupulous authoritarian, self-availing rulers or fundamentalist, jihad-driven theocracies determined to spread Islamism far and wide as a political, religious, social, ideological tide that drowns out all other opposing/conflicting alternatives. The way of all Muslim and Arab states is to classify those of their citizens who rebel as terrorists, spurred in their protests by nefarious outsiders, infidels and Zionists.

And as the West finds itself haplessly sucked into yet another Middle East/Arab/African/Muslim conflict, in an attempt to restore order in a volatile area of the world whose impact spreads far and wide, it becomes the victim attempting to rescue other victims. It is the West, the Christian West, attempting to protect the Muslim world from itself.

And the Muslim world content to permit the West these psychological contortions. Unwilling themselves to become involved in protecting their own from their own. Calling upon the West to do what they should be doing. And when the West becomes embroiled and matters do not proceed as the Arab and the Muslim world anticipates, the West is once again the Crusaders intent on undoing the Muslim world.

And there is Israel, tiny Israel, attempting to protect its viability its integrity, its territory, its population. And there is Hamas in Gaza, intent on drawing Israel yet again into another battle where the rest of the world will instinctively rise up in horror that a democracy 'attacks' a Muslim entity, disproportionately, unjustly.

And should Israel be sufficiently provoked and rise to the provocations in protection of her own, why then what else appears inevitable but that all the embattled Arab and Muslim states turn upon her to divert attention from themselves, applauding the Arab street that jubilantly proclaims "Death to Israel!"

As one high-ranking Israeli stated from Israel's Southern Command overseeing Gaza: "The region is a big mess right now. Everything is unpredictable. And it could turn against us quickly."

"What Can You Do?"

"Maybe you hesitate or seem nervous and they will think you have something to hide. Not all of them are good people."

"If they don't know who you are, and are in their part of town, and you have a nice car, then they are going to think you are a car thief or they say you are with Gadhafi."

The arrests, the maltreatment, the beatings and the superfluous killing is not just taking place on the part of the government troops wreaking vengeance on the upstart rebels when they have the opportunity. It seems that the panic and the chaos and the unrest has brought equal opportunity to the fore.

In that people in Benghazi who are even remotely suspected of having sympathy with the government are being rounded up, taken away, and sometimes murdered. Or simply have disappeared. Accused of being Gadhafi supporters, this constitutes a death sentence. Gangs of vigilantes are doing their thing.

Their thing is setting up roadblocks consisting of anything that comes to hand, to officiously control entry and exit from neighbourhoods. Anyone who appears suspicious is taken away, interrogated, beaten and accused. Frenzied mobs hearing that purported spies for Gadhafi have breached their city are prepared to dispatch them.

The rebel leaders, the interim government in the east, represent professionals: academics, businesspeople, lawyers who have had the privilege of receiving their education abroad in Britain or the United States. They know all about democracy, about human rights and about legalities and justice, and they know the right words to use in expressing that knowledge.

They also admit, however reluctantly, that brutal meting out of 'justice' in the city has been perpetrated by rebel gangs in fear of infiltration by government loyalists. The rebels' provisional government spokesman speaks of hundreds of government supporters living in the city, and their sleeper cells.

"We know where they live and many have been rounded up. There are people looking for them. A lot have been caught and killed." Some people, he explained, had simply been detained to protect them. The revolutionary council is not inciting the mobs toward murder.

"But if they start shooting, what can you do?"

The Stress of War

"We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one. We will be victorious in the end. I am staying here, I am staying in my tent. I am here, I am here, I am here." Moammar Gadhafi

The international community with some notable exceptions would prefer he not be there. The design is that Moammar Gadhafi leave Libya. Leave Libya to Libyans who will make of it a normal country. Though guarantees there are none that this would evolve were he to leave. On enough occasions in other places when tyrants have been removed those who take their place have not brought the countries to a better condition, imposing their own unlimited tyrannies.

Now that the disorganized coalition without-a-leader has committed to defending the rebels, it is thought that the rebels will successfully regroup and retake what they lost before the successful advance of the Libyan government troops. But Gadhafi has no intention of permitting that. And his military continues to encircle and to bomb rebel-held positions. This is his country, his Libya.

It may very well be it will remain his Libya. At least the West of the country may. While the Eastern portion may go its own way. This civil war of attrition and retribution may very well result in partition, despite the best intentions of the international community gathered with its fighter jets to prevent any further air strikes by the government against its people.

And the air strikes, such as they are, are exceedingly unpopular with a significant collective force of the outside world, inclusive of Russia, India, China, Venezuela and Brazil. While the U.S. and France scoff at Libyan government claims that air strikes have killed dozens of Libyan civilians, Russia urges caution.

And where is the Arab League and the African Union in all of this? The Arab League, 22-nation strong with a wish to rid themselves of a major irritant, yet unwilling, despite being in possession of several persuasively large and well-armed militaries - in Egypt and Saudi Arabia for starters - of doing their own work.

The African Union, under-armed and under-enthused and ill trained capable of little.

The Western nations tasked as always to do the work that should be done by those within the geography. Who will then be considered guilty of imperial trespass and invidious designs on the priceless natural resources of the countries they invade. Allies they consider themselves, of the Arab and Muslim countries, acting with responsible alacrity to avert humanitarian disasters.

This is not how they are seen however, by the Arab Street which considers the West the fount of all evil. Responsible now also for the situation where Libyans are facing soaring medical shortages and rising food staples costs, and shortage of drugs to treat chronic diseases, and a growing incidence of mental health disorders from the stress of war.

Just Too Precious

What a coalition this is! Western powers and a few Arab countries united in opposition to Moammar Gadhafi's determination to remain in power and to punish those of his people with the temerity to oppose his continued rule. The united front is anything but united. It is fractious and querulous.

While France and Britain took the initiative with huge umbrage at the prospect of Gadhafi targeting his own people with wild brutality, insisting that the United Nations pass a resolution for a no-fly zone as a humanitarian necessity, they rely on the fire-power of the United States.

The United States, willing enough to be involved - but unwilling this time around to be the presumptive leader where it remains a target of Arab loathing for interfering in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries in its zeal to protect its oil interests - awaits leadership from elsewhere.

Standing ready and eager to hand that leadership over to France, to Britain, to NATO. But NATO's participation requires all 28 of its members to agree. And Turkey, the sole Muslim member of NATO, is abrasively resistant to NATO's involvement in the battering and bombing of Libya.

Along with China and Russia, both of whom have their own internal dissents to cope with. Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has described the Allied bombing of Libya's military as "indiscriminate force", as "a medieval call for a crusade". No one has mentioned Russia's brutal incursion into Georgia and its support of South Ossetia.

China for its part, describes the air strikes on Libya as comparable to "the blood-soaked tempests that Iraq has undergone for eight years and the unspeakable suffering of its people". No one has made any mention of the blood-soaked tempests in Tibet and the unspeakable suffering of the Tibetans with the loss of their culture, their heritage, their lives. And perhaps that is just as well.

The Arab League has now back-tracked on its complaints that in calling for the United Nations to authorize a no-fly zone, it had no intention of seeing civilians killed - as they contend was occurring under the coalition attacks. It has now re-affirmed its commitment to ensuring that mad-dog Gadhafi no longer wages war on his own.

Although that sentiment has not yet been communicated to Moammar Gadhafi and his forces are busily engaged doing just that.

Italy now threatens to take back control of its air bases. Italy doesn't mind being militarily subservient and at the service of the United States' forces, but it takes umbrage at being used and taken-for-granted by France and by Great Britain. Italy foresees the feasibility of NATO taking charge in the absence of American leadership.

Germany, along with Turkey, has no wish to see NATO involved. That would force Berlin to backtrack on its refusal to become involved in the entire inconvenient mess.

And so, what's the agenda? Protection of the rebels? The long shilly-shallying until the Arab League decided to back a no-fly option gave the Gadhafi regime ample opportunity to strengthen and consolidate its resources, and weaken the initial successful advance of the rebels.

What happens if there is a stand-off between the government forces and the rebels? And a division of the country ensues? Leaving Gadhafi in control of the north, the rebels the south. That would result in a waiting game. The coalition will not be around forever. And the battle will re-commence.

And here's a funny thing; the coalition heads of state all favour the elimination of Moammar Gadhafi. That he flee with his family, which he is not inclined to do, or that he be 'eliminated', which is to say dispatched, or rather assassinated, or killed by bombing. The bombing of his compound did not succeed in dispatching him.

And while the heads of state anticipate his removal by means fair and foul, it is their military chiefs who want no part of anything like that, considering it to be an 'unwise' move, and not within their mandate.

Isn't that just too precious?

Straining The Imagination

France and Britain agitated forcefully for intervention in Libya. Italy offered its air bases. The United States remained hesitant of embroiling itself once again in a conflict pitting it against a Muslim country. It is heavily mired down in Afghanistan and still involved in Iraq. Both of which arenas have garnered it hostility in the Arab world, as an occupier of Arab land. All Western countries are garishly brushed with the imperialist colours of petroleum greed.

Moammar Gadhafi went a bit too far in his arrogant incitement of fear and misgivings threatening the rebels in his country, promising that they would not live to see the light of another day once his troops retook the cities the rebels had taken. His is famously a scorched-earth mentality. The rebels had full knowledge of his vicious intentions, which spurred them on to battle more deliriously determinedly with the intention of giving as good as they prepared themselves to get.

They were, all the while, awaiting rescue by the West. Their initial assertions that they wanted a safe sky and nothing more. That they would not tolerate foreign boots on their ground, in anticipation that they would lose their sovereignty by an influx of troops they had no stomach to receive. The pride in their capabilities as a fighting force to the fore. And the Arab and Muslim disgust with the presence of U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan is manifest and deeply entrenched.

But when there was no response reflecting the intention to act on their behalf, only brave words of inspiration that the world was watching and hoping for their victory, matched by government forces managing to take the upper hand, desperation overcame caution. Still, not much could be done...until the Gulf States managed to convince the Arab League that a no-fly zone was desperately needed lest Gadhafi, who always offended everyone, succeed in obliterating the rebel alliance in a sea of blood.

The League took it upon itself to authorize the United Nations to take all necessary measures. Which went quite a bit further, as it happened than merely instituting a no-fly zone, which in and of itself would have been a declaration of war. The resolution that was passed by a vote of 10, with no dissenting votes, just 5 abstentions, went further, much further. Including a no-drive zone, a maritime exclusion zone, and the disruption of official Libyan communications.

Then began the almost immediate response with French and British jets bombing Libyan armoured vehicles and artillery, and U.S. missiles being fired from offshore ships in the Mediterranean. And then the Arab League suffering grave misgivings, denying that this was what they wanted when they asked the UN to intervene. It seems unlikely that any of the Arab states, like Egypt or Saudi Arabia will become involved.

Particularly with their own problems of protests against their traditional rule with their populations seeking more freedoms and fewer authoritarian governments. And with that unrest within their own borders, concerns that their having become involved in the affairs of another Arab country while affairs within their own have not been settled they would not want to be viewed as becoming increasingly involved with the United States' interests.

In short, it is the typical Arab situation, waffling and weaving and wavering; exhorting on the one hand, denying on the other. And the Arab League has no wish to become involved in a situation whose longevity no one can predict. With a possibility that tribal antipathies within Libya could even divide the country and a prolonged civil war ensue. Which would trap Western powers already committed to the rebel cause.

Who knows, in the end, whether the bloody tyrant that will be replaced will have his place taken by someone equally horrendous, or, straining the imagination, even worse? And who might have imagined all this occurring when the new year of 2011 bade adieu to 2010?

Taking Sides

"The sun has risen and the darkness has been removed and the truth will prevail."

The truth is, in this instance of time and place which will eventually take its part in history that a devious, implacable and vicious tyrant has been destroying the lives of his own people, those who have lived for 42 years under his rule as the "King of Africa". These are the people who appear to have determined for themselves that they will no longer live as crushed and repressed people without the civilizing and needful benefits of basic human rights.

Their revolt, inspired by liberty-inspired revolutionary zeal expressed by other rebels in other countries of the near-geography, in Africa and in the Middle East, has resulted in a punitive back-lash that has raised the indignant ire of the world. Of the West, and of some parts of the Arab and Muslim world, in any event. Some of whose governments were prepared to take action beyond expressing dismay and anger.

The 'leader' of the free world, the United States of America, imperiously instructed Moammar Gadhafi that he must 'step down' instanter. That message was just as imperiously flicked off the radar. Watch me and learn by my example, he effectively informed the world. And the rebels whose amazingly audacious and determined blow-back against the tyrant in capturing and holding Benghzi and other Libyan cities, kept advancing.

But then the metal gauntlet of Gadhafi's brutal and stifling reign was thrown down and the rebels finally understood that their assembled arms and defences were like children's toys against the armoured vehicles, gun ships, artillery, mechanized armoured vehicles, warplanes of the government forces. The civil war that ensued saw a speedy retreat, and desperate refugees trying to escape the war zones.

And then, fearful Libyans who gathered themselves about television sets, witnessed the United Nations Security Council voting through resolution 1973 and hope blazed anew. Their tyrant proclaimed the resolution "invalid", yet on the strength of the potential, assured the world that a ceasefire was in effect, while his troops were ordered to strafe and bomb and kill civilians in the towns of Ajdabiya, Misratah, Zawiyah and Benghazi.

The rebels, attempting to defend Ajdabiya, had suffered many losses, and the euphoria that had fed their determination to succeed in the upheaval of the dark forces of tyranny turned to fear as they were pushed back to 140 kilometres from Benghazi, their main stronghold. And the government warplanes flying over Benghazi let loose their bombs there too. Promising to lethally punish all who were involved in the revolt.

"They said we just had to keep going until we got the no-fly zone. this week people started to think it would never come. I don't know how much longer we could have held on."

They did, and it did. And as the G8-member Paris meeting to discuss the situation and the members' involvement wound up, President Nicolas Sarkozy grimly asserted that France would intervene momentarily. Then twenty French military planes bombed military installations in Tripoli. The United Kingdom hot on their heels to do their part to neutralize government tanks and artillery.

Not to be undone the reluctant United States stated that cruise missiles aboard their ships in the Mediterranean were placed on active alert. Col. Gadhafi now knows of a certainty that his bluff has been called. He can no longer play for time. His ferocious onslaught of the rebels is being met and rebuffed and his armour destroyed.

This is meet and this is just. And then one's mind lingers on Darfur/Sudan, on Rwanda, on Iran; why here, not there?

Ten Agreeing, Five Abstaining

Credit is due Britain and France for their unwavering determination to halt Moammar Gadhafi's determination to brutally crush the opposition to his continued rule in Libya. Where other Arab and Muslim regimes have recognized the merit in their populations' clamour for liberty and human rights, and have begun to make accommodation to meet some of those demands as just, Libya's bloody-minded dictator is determined to wipe out his opposition.

And where, just a week earlier, that scenario was not really on the international radar with the determined rebels' advances into former Gadhafi strongholds, government forces with their vastly superior military war machines have turned the tide of rebellion. And Gadhafi boasts that another 48 hours will see the rebellion fully stifled, with those among the rebels who insist on holding their own to pay fully for their folly in opposing him.

While the world waited with bated breath for the new American administration to step firmly into the breach and commit to aiding the rebels not with brave words but with active commitment, nothing of the kind occurred. But Britain and France doggedly lobbied the United Nations, NATO and the European Union for consensus on a unified front to dislodge one of the world's most infamous tyrants from imposing any further carnage on his own people.

The Arab League finally succumbed and agreed, along with the Gulf States, that Gadhafi must be halted in his advance to obliterate any vestige of home-grown opposition. A no-fly zone would suit them just fine, they said, cautioning that they would never support a foreign army marching into Libya. A no-fly zone would, of necessity, require bombing raids against Libyan airfields and warplanes. And now, the Security Council, having finally debated the issue as Libyan government troops are marching toward Bengazhi, the die is cast.

Ten votes for a no-fly zone to be imposed over rebel-held areas of the country, with five abstentions. Paradoxically, Lebanon, with its place on the temporary Council, helped Britain and France circulate the resolution. Lebanon, high-jacked by its very own Islamist-jihad militia serving Iran and Syria as their proxies within that country, whose political wing has trumped despite having murdered a former prime minister of the country, has paradoxically committed to freeing Libya in essence, from a brutal tyrant.

Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's former deputy ambassador to the UN, now a passionately vocal voice in the effort to unseat Moammar Gadhafi, who commented that the "international community has to act in the next ten hours", must feel some measure of relief and satisfaction that finally his appeals have been answered.

All to the good, if words can be matched with action in good enough time to halt the troops advancing toward Benghazi before a slaughter ensues.

Stalled Rebellion

So the Gulf States which came out directly stating that Moammar Gadhafi has lost legitimacy in attacking his own people so venomously with unrestrained abandon, encouraged the Arab League to issue a similar statement. Solidarity among the Arab States even and despite their divisions on many fronts, might never have predicted that outcome. Particularly since so many of the Arab States are now facing their own growing insurrections.

The ferociously ignoble, boastfully mendacious man who always posed as somewhat of a destabilizing threat in his inchoate distemper and propensity to encourage violence outside of his own domain would not be missed by his Arab brethren. The irony is that the Arab League has taken this step at a time when it appears that Moammar Gadhafi's push-back against the anti-regime brigades appears to be reaching success.

The spectre of a civil war and the prospect of interference by foreign powers in a country's internecine political upheaval speaks of a complex situation and unwarranted interference. The Arab League appears to have no appetite to assemble its forces to aid the rebels whose side they have now perched on. Their request for a 'no-fly' zone signals their agreement should NATO or the UN sponsor such a military intervention.

Turkey stands out, along with China and Russia, as powerful countries disinterested in having any hand in aiding one side against the other. As France and Britain try to encourage enthusiasm to act from among the European Union countries and the United States, the situation is escalating with increasing casualties to the rebels and decreasing potential for their rebellion to succeed.

The anti-regime rebels who at first would hear no talk of a 'no-fly' zone, and had no wish whatever to encourage intervention from the West, insisting that this must be a 'made in Libya' and 'success by Libyans' enterprise, now wonder what went wrong. They are being slaughtered by government warplanes and tanks in a counter-offensive that has surprised everyone.

"Everyone here is puzzled as to how many casualties the international community judges to be enough for them to help", said a rebel spokesman.

Paralyzed With Inaction

"People are dying out there. Gaddafi's forces have rockets and tanks."

What looked convincingly like a rag-tab rebel army coming together to oust a vicious dictator whose time had finally arrived, is now beginning to resemble the death throes of an embattled resistance. The government of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi's forces have artillery, tanks and helicopters that the rebel forces cannot match for efficacy.

The rebel groups remain unorganized, and disputes have arisen between them. Their confidence is sagging as they realize the extent to which their lesser-favoured armaments are not quite equal to the task of meeting government troops head on. They have been strafed and bombed and bloodied and chastened by the experience. The euphoria they have been living with is fading.

They are undisciplined and wasteful of the ammunition they have. They have managed, in small towns that they have occupied, to alienate the residents who were eager to welcome them. Alienated them by the rough antics and dangerous and unwarranted abuse of their weapons, firing into the air at all hours, disrupting normal life.

The rebels, although not professional soldiers, come from warrior Bedouin stock. Whose tribal loyalties and and traditional battles against one another are still ingrained in their psyches although they are now shopkeepers, teachers, gas station attendants, doctors. They have long since identified with a genuine need to free themselves from the shackles of their dictator. And are now collectively dedicated to that mission.

They do not have enough arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and equipment modern enough to match those of the government troops. Resupplying their front lines has been difficult. And leadership has been fragmented. In any case, the instant conscripts do not follow orders and respond enthusiastically but without discipline. The brigades they have formed fly by the seat of their pants.

They do know, however, that they need help. "People cannot run away, it's cordoned off. they cannot flee. All those who can fight are fighting, including teen-agers. Children and women are being hidden", is the message from Zawiyah's desperate scenes of government troops inflicting carnage. "Many buildings are completely destroyed, including hospitals, mosques, electricity lines and generators."

Where, they ask bitterly, is the West. Which mounts international podiums to speak of the unacceptability of the situation. Which speaks of no-fly zones, but does nothing. The rebels do want assistance. "We will complete our victory when we are afforded a no-fly zone. If there was also action to stop him from recruiting mercenaries, his end would come within hours", claimed Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the National Libyan Council.

France and England await the United Nations' decisive determination to act. The Security Council will not budge, however, with Russia and China insisting that Libya must itself solve its internal problems. The Arab League is set to meet to discuss the plea by the Gulf States that NATO and the UN declare a no-fly zone.

And the European Union countries fret about the growing emergency that will inevitably result in their receiving more refugees than they can comfortably absorb.

Will They Or Won't They?

It cannot always be up to the United States to talk tough and act tougher. Other countries must, on occasion, take the responsibility. Particularly when the U.S. is already embroiled in action in Iraq and Afghanistan that it finds itself unable to extract completely from. Involving massive treasury outlays and troop, munitions, strategic technological strikes and diplomatic investments.

Along with the simmering resentment and targeting that emanates from such mired-in situations. It has become famously unpopular in the Arab street.

Since Italy, France, Germany and Spain are the economic beneficiaries through importation of 90% of Libya's oil exports, and Britain enjoys a well-entrenched trade relationship with the country, it should logically be they who are front and centre of the situation to seize the moment and create a protective protocol in aid of the country's insurgents against their bloody dictator.

And, in point of fact, it appears that England and France are spear-heading just such a military protocol. Putting it together theoretically, mapping it out on paper. Just in case, the situation continues to escalate into something far more sinister and far-reaching than appears at the present time. Of course, formulating a plan to enact a no-fly zone is one thing, executing it is another, since neither of those two countries is prepared to act unless UN Security Council approval results.

Russia and China have already indicated they feel intervention is inappropriate. The Arab League has issued a warning not to intervene. And they most certainly have no interest in doing so themselves, since many of those same countries are facing their own inconvenient and vexing anti-regime protests. The Gulf States have indicated they would welcome the imposition of a no-fly zone in protection of Libya's civilian population. Turkey would not.

"There should be a demonstrable need that the whole world can see, there must be a clear legal basis for such a no-fly zone and there must be clear support from the region, from the Middle East region, from the North African region as well as from the people of Libya themselves." British Foreign Secretary William Hague

NATO might conceivably be persuaded to step in to promote what the UN Security Council has not. It is conducting air surveillance to determine the extent of Libya's air flights and their targets. The "gross and systematic" violations of human rights, the bombing of civilians, the employment of foreign mercenaries all present as more than adequate reason to invoke the UN's "responsibility to protect" intervention.

The Libyan rebel fighters have no wish for any foreign ground forces to come to their rescue and in the process take their thunder. They shudder at the very prospect of a foreign invasion of their country, viewing the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan with great revulsion. They would appreciate, and have invited, a no-fly zone. Commitment to which would require foreign warplanes to target Libya's arsenal of warplanes and helicopters as well as air strips to neutralize their ability to bomb rebel-held towns.

And meanwhile, even while they are not committing themselves to any action, let alone support of the initiatives already taken by members of the European Union countries, the Obama administration, after its initial stern pronouncements of its expectations, have become suddenly mute and seemingly disinterested. They may become yet, however, involved in a more distant manner; jamming radio signals, airdropping supplies and weapons to the rebels.

NATO's future plans, meanwhile may also yet include "potential military options".

Professional creme de la creme

How about that, a highly credited secret service that flat-footedly performed in the most embarrassing manner. These credentialed professionals were so awkward in their experienced conduct that a rag-tag group of civilian protesters turned rebels contemptuously took them into custody as they flagrantly demonstrated their talents for an amateur-hour performance.

Wrong place at the wrong time, chappies. Come back some other time when the nascent civil war has been concluded.

Oh, it's a mission. A rescue mission. Yours for the purpose of spiriting a British diplomat out of the country because of the dangers inherent in remaining there. So, why didn't you leave a calling card, state your official mission, ask permission to cross the border, present as a legitimate group of professionals whose task is to be respected.

After all, fellas, a whole lot of others have preceded y'all, dontcha know.

"The reason they were arrested was that they came into the country unofficially and without any arrangement with the Libyan authorities. Libya is an independent nation, we have our borders [and] we should expect them to be respected by everybody." Got that? A spokesman for the rebels' National Council, no less.

He and they may detest and abhor their current government and its tyrannical head, but they do respect the autonomy of their sovereign state, chum. Call before you drop in, it's common courtesy. Even in a chaotic, incoherent situation like what prevails in Libya at the moment, where the protesters are rather politely stating their goal and government forces are bashing the hell out of them.

No fewer than seven SAS soldiers and an MI6 officer. (The glorious, legendary MI6!) Coming in on a helicopter. Over rebel positions. What did you expect them to think? They are, after all, being bombed by government troops. You presented as possibly more of the same. True, you persuaded them you were unarmed and thus to be trusted.

But you were armed, and thus not to be trusted. What kind of stupid moronic idiocy is that for an operational performance? Practising for what, amateur hour at the local pub?