Libyan resistance to long-planned NATO offensive continues
August 26, 2011
Libyan "rebels" stand guard over detainees in Tripoli, Aug. 25
Today, the following lines were printed in an article on the website of Aljazeera, which along with the BBC, The New York Times and other imperialist news outlets has spread lies and disinformation about the conflict in Libya, acting as an integral part of the NATO war and current offensive on Tripoli:“Aiding the Libyan rebel forces of the National Transitional Council has created a debt of gratitude. In the context of responsibility for what happens next in Libya, an anonymous British official told the Economist that NATO's involvement in the Libyan uprising means that: ‘Now we own it.’”
That is a startling admission and really says it all. It should erase any shred of doubt in people’s minds about the intentions of the United States., Britain and France—the former colonizers and enslavers of Africa—in regards to Libya. So, too, should any objective examination of facts coming out about the military advance on Tripoli.
In fact it is not possible for the imperialist countries involved in the war on Libya to finance and direct a lengthy military operation against an independent and sovereign nation without intending to gain in return the “ownership” of the besieged country’s resources and markets.
Libya has the largest known oil reserves in Africa.
To carry out such a military, political and media operation, the imperialists expect, at the minimum, to set up a puppet neo-colonial government like the ones in Afghanistan and Iraq to help facilitate the plundering of Libya and its oil. Anything less than that bargain will place any new government in Libya in the identical crosshairs that the Gaddafi government has been in for the last 42 years!
The puppet in waiting “Transitional National Council” is touring Europe to beg Libya’s former colonizers, who are reducing the country to rubble, to release $5 billion in the country’s assets to them.
By what right do U.S. and European institutions have the authority to decide the fate of Libya’s wealth? The only thing that gives them that right is imperialist oppression and aggression.
At a press conference with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi where Italy promised to “release” Libyan funds to the TNC as if it were payment for a job well done, TNC representative Mahmoud Jibril said, “The destabilization inside Tripoli and other parts of the country would really be beyond control without steady funding.” This is a frank and outright public admission that the TNC cannot and will not rule in Libya without direct support from the former colonizers, in the event that NATO wins the war.
Tonight, a TNC official supposedly held the first news briefing from Tripoli. Who was the first TNC official to speak from Tripoli to proclaim the “new government”? Fittingly, it was the oil and finance minister, Ali Tahouni, who declared that the rebels had transferred their leadership bodies to Tripoli.
Tripoli offensive planned for months
The entire offensive against Tripoli has been made possible not through an uprising of the masses or a “rebel” army that has the support of the people nor a popular wish to overthrow a “tyrant,” but by a highly coordinated terrorist assault unleashed by NATO against civilians, whole neighborhoods and the institutions and armed forces of Libya.
The mainstream press has widely reported that CIA and MI6 agents are on the ground in Tripoli, directing the bombing and strafing campaign. According to the CBS News, British, French and British-trained Qatari special forces led the much-publicized assault on the Gaddafi compound in coordination with British warplanes.
In the assaults of Tawarga and Zlitan, the same foreign special forces led the assault that overran the cities on the way to Tripoli. On the night of Aug. 21, a flanking maneuver by the Libyan army that might have cut off the advance on Tripoli from the east was reportedly halted by NATO warplanes.
In the Zlitan offensive, NATO targeted civilians, killing 85 people. On Aug. 21, NATO bombing killed 1,300 people in Tripoli. Neighborhoods in the capital of Libya are being bombed and city streets strafed by NATO warplanes, in order to “soften” areas up for “rebel” advance.
According to CBS News, on the same day that NATO was slaughtering civilians, rebels preparing for the assault of Tripoli were chanting, “We are coming for you, frizz-head.”
According to the BBC: “Migrant African workers stranded in Libya are terrified they will be mistaken for pro-Gaddafi mercenaries and attacked or detained by the rebels, Antonio Guterres, the UN's high commissioner for refugees tells the AP news agency. ‘Their testimony is the testimony of despair, they feel trapped, they cannot move,’ he says of the thousands thought to be stranded there.”
The Associated Press reported Aug. 25 that in Tripoli, “Rebels were hauling away prisoners, some of them with an African appearance.“
A British soldier taking part in the operations is quoted in a Guardian article on Aug. 25 relating that before the current offensive led by NATO forces on the ground, which is characterized by extensive air support, the lightly armed rebels were unable to make meaningful advances against well-trained, equipped and dedicated Libyan troops. Numerous other sources have reported that the invasion of Tripoli was planned months in advance and some rebel troops were trained by foreign advisors for weeks in preparation for the advance on the capital.
In other words, the five-month-long bombing campaign against infrastructure and civilians carried out by NATO, along with economic sanctions, demonization campaigns and a naval blockade, was not about protecting civilians nor for any other humanitarian reasons, but about terrorizing the people of Libya in preparation for invading Tripoli and overthrowing the Libyan government under NATO’s direct leadership.
Maybe for some individual rebels the fight is about Gaddafi, but for the NATO powers they are unleashing their military might against the people of Libya solely to reduce the country to its knees so NATO can dictate the terms of surrender.
Resistance to NATO continues
After six days of fighting, Libyan troops continue to hold out against the NATO offensive. Despite daily proclamations that the battle is all but over, Gaddafi and government spokesmen Moussa Ibrahim have made daily statements to the press, urging the people to fight on. None of Gaddafi’s sons have been captured.
Government forces have held onto whole neighborhoods in Tripoli despite heavy bombing and the use of highly destructive gunships against the population.
Libyan troops have conducted numerous offensives against the rebels that have been under-reported in the mainstream press, including surrounding rebel fighters on the border of Tunisia, pinning fighters down on the road to Sirte with numerous ambushes and staging coordinated attacks in areas of Tripoli supposedly held by rebels. Missiles continue to be launched on the rebel held Misrata.
On Aug. 25, Libyan troops attacked the rebel positions around the Corinthian Hotel and the airport, which are supposedly in rebel-controlled areas of the city. In nearly every area of Tripoli, government fighters continue to harass NATO troops. Even Gaddafi’s destroyed compound has not been secured by the rebels.
An outcome favorable to the U.S. and NATO is not in the people’s interest. It would pose a grave danger to the aspirations of Africa and to other independent countries like Syria and Venezuela currently in the crosshairs.
Though it is difficult to tell with precision what is happening on the ground in Tripoli and the rest of Libya, it is clear at the time of this writing that the fighting is not over and there is obviously no mass support for NATO and the rebels within Tripoli and many parts of the country. Though imperialism has used a vast array of weapons and propaganda against Libya, the Libyan masses, who have poured out into the streets of Tripoli on numerous occasions to oppose the NATO bombing, have the potential to tip the scales of this war and repel the NATO colonizers.
U.S. and NATO Out of Libya Now!
That is a startling admission and really says it all. It should erase any shred of doubt in people’s minds about the intentions of the United States., Britain and France—the former colonizers and enslavers of Africa—in regards to Libya. So, too, should any objective examination of facts coming out about the military advance on Tripoli.
In fact it is not possible for the imperialist countries involved in the war on Libya to finance and direct a lengthy military operation against an independent and sovereign nation without intending to gain in return the “ownership” of the besieged country’s resources and markets.
Libya has the largest known oil reserves in Africa.
To carry out such a military, political and media operation, the imperialists expect, at the minimum, to set up a puppet neo-colonial government like the ones in Afghanistan and Iraq to help facilitate the plundering of Libya and its oil. Anything less than that bargain will place any new government in Libya in the identical crosshairs that the Gaddafi government has been in for the last 42 years!
The puppet in waiting “Transitional National Council” is touring Europe to beg Libya’s former colonizers, who are reducing the country to rubble, to release $5 billion in the country’s assets to them.
By what right do U.S. and European institutions have the authority to decide the fate of Libya’s wealth? The only thing that gives them that right is imperialist oppression and aggression.
At a press conference with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi where Italy promised to “release” Libyan funds to the TNC as if it were payment for a job well done, TNC representative Mahmoud Jibril said, “The destabilization inside Tripoli and other parts of the country would really be beyond control without steady funding.” This is a frank and outright public admission that the TNC cannot and will not rule in Libya without direct support from the former colonizers, in the event that NATO wins the war.
Tonight, a TNC official supposedly held the first news briefing from Tripoli. Who was the first TNC official to speak from Tripoli to proclaim the “new government”? Fittingly, it was the oil and finance minister, Ali Tahouni, who declared that the rebels had transferred their leadership bodies to Tripoli.
Tripoli offensive planned for months
The entire offensive against Tripoli has been made possible not through an uprising of the masses or a “rebel” army that has the support of the people nor a popular wish to overthrow a “tyrant,” but by a highly coordinated terrorist assault unleashed by NATO against civilians, whole neighborhoods and the institutions and armed forces of Libya.
The mainstream press has widely reported that CIA and MI6 agents are on the ground in Tripoli, directing the bombing and strafing campaign. According to the CBS News, British, French and British-trained Qatari special forces led the much-publicized assault on the Gaddafi compound in coordination with British warplanes.
In the assaults of Tawarga and Zlitan, the same foreign special forces led the assault that overran the cities on the way to Tripoli. On the night of Aug. 21, a flanking maneuver by the Libyan army that might have cut off the advance on Tripoli from the east was reportedly halted by NATO warplanes.
In the Zlitan offensive, NATO targeted civilians, killing 85 people. On Aug. 21, NATO bombing killed 1,300 people in Tripoli. Neighborhoods in the capital of Libya are being bombed and city streets strafed by NATO warplanes, in order to “soften” areas up for “rebel” advance.
According to CBS News, on the same day that NATO was slaughtering civilians, rebels preparing for the assault of Tripoli were chanting, “We are coming for you, frizz-head.”
According to the BBC: “Migrant African workers stranded in Libya are terrified they will be mistaken for pro-Gaddafi mercenaries and attacked or detained by the rebels, Antonio Guterres, the UN's high commissioner for refugees tells the AP news agency. ‘Their testimony is the testimony of despair, they feel trapped, they cannot move,’ he says of the thousands thought to be stranded there.”
The Associated Press reported Aug. 25 that in Tripoli, “Rebels were hauling away prisoners, some of them with an African appearance.“
A British soldier taking part in the operations is quoted in a Guardian article on Aug. 25 relating that before the current offensive led by NATO forces on the ground, which is characterized by extensive air support, the lightly armed rebels were unable to make meaningful advances against well-trained, equipped and dedicated Libyan troops. Numerous other sources have reported that the invasion of Tripoli was planned months in advance and some rebel troops were trained by foreign advisors for weeks in preparation for the advance on the capital.
In other words, the five-month-long bombing campaign against infrastructure and civilians carried out by NATO, along with economic sanctions, demonization campaigns and a naval blockade, was not about protecting civilians nor for any other humanitarian reasons, but about terrorizing the people of Libya in preparation for invading Tripoli and overthrowing the Libyan government under NATO’s direct leadership.
Maybe for some individual rebels the fight is about Gaddafi, but for the NATO powers they are unleashing their military might against the people of Libya solely to reduce the country to its knees so NATO can dictate the terms of surrender.
Resistance to NATO continues
After six days of fighting, Libyan troops continue to hold out against the NATO offensive. Despite daily proclamations that the battle is all but over, Gaddafi and government spokesmen Moussa Ibrahim have made daily statements to the press, urging the people to fight on. None of Gaddafi’s sons have been captured.
Government forces have held onto whole neighborhoods in Tripoli despite heavy bombing and the use of highly destructive gunships against the population.
Libyan troops have conducted numerous offensives against the rebels that have been under-reported in the mainstream press, including surrounding rebel fighters on the border of Tunisia, pinning fighters down on the road to Sirte with numerous ambushes and staging coordinated attacks in areas of Tripoli supposedly held by rebels. Missiles continue to be launched on the rebel held Misrata.
On Aug. 25, Libyan troops attacked the rebel positions around the Corinthian Hotel and the airport, which are supposedly in rebel-controlled areas of the city. In nearly every area of Tripoli, government fighters continue to harass NATO troops. Even Gaddafi’s destroyed compound has not been secured by the rebels.
An outcome favorable to the U.S. and NATO is not in the people’s interest. It would pose a grave danger to the aspirations of Africa and to other independent countries like Syria and Venezuela currently in the crosshairs.
Though it is difficult to tell with precision what is happening on the ground in Tripoli and the rest of Libya, it is clear at the time of this writing that the fighting is not over and there is obviously no mass support for NATO and the rebels within Tripoli and many parts of the country. Though imperialism has used a vast array of weapons and propaganda against Libya, the Libyan masses, who have poured out into the streets of Tripoli on numerous occasions to oppose the NATO bombing, have the potential to tip the scales of this war and repel the NATO colonizers.
U.S. and NATO Out of Libya Now!
