French military intervention in Libya starting soon?

[noddy]

the view from the compost is definately looking like cynicism is the preferred option.

[Hans Bulvai]

[Hans Bulvai]

[Mr. Perfect]

Karl Rove on Fox, big on Obama's new war.

skyhook, Azrael, neocon alliance.

[skyhook77sfg]

QUICK SITREP
from small wars journal:




Qaddafi’s next moves


The international coalition’s air campaign is about 48 hours old and in strictly military terms the results thus far are probably exceeding expectations. Western aircraft are flying over Libya and Libyan aircraft are not. Quick air supremacy was widely expected. More notable are the dozens of pro-Qaddafi armored vehicles now burning along the road between Ajdabiya and Benghazi, destroyed by coalition attack aircraft. The successful attack on Qaddafi’s armored column on the road to Benghazi has provided the relief Western policymakers were scrambling for last week.

But this very likely ends the conventional military phase of the campaign. Qaddafi will now attempt to deprive Western airpower of any additional targets by shifting to irregular warfare tactics.

After the destruction of the armored column south of Benghazi, Qaddafi will now attempt to negate the utility of Western airpower by using civilians to cover the movement and employment of his military units. According to the BBC, Qaddafi achieved a success in this regard today, when a British air force strike package had to abort its mission due to the presence of civilians around the intended target.

Qaddafi commanders will attempt to resume the battle for Benghazi by using civilians and their vehicles (upon which cities depend for commerce) to cover the movement of irregular fighters and weapons into the city. Qaddafi would welcome a Western air attack on civilian vehicle traffic, as such an attack would create an opportunity for a spectacular propaganda success.

The cities in eastern Libya are likely to become the key terrain during the next phase of the war. Both sides will value them. Qaddafi’s forces will need these cities for protection against coalition air power. The rebels will value them because they will provide manpower for resistance units, logistics support for those units, and ground-level intelligence on pro-Qaddafi military forces. Each side will have the goal of driving the other out, the loyalists to be bombed while in the open, or the rebels to be cut off from their support base.

Should coalition air patrols succeed in reducing the tempo of ground operations, both sides – as they struggle to control the cities – could revert to urban terror, such as car bombs, in an attempt to gain control over neighborhoods and populations. The result could be the buildup of a large pro-rebel refugee population in western Egypt, especially if such an urban terror campaign spreads to Tobruk and other eastern Libyan cities along the coast road. If the war looks like it will drag on indefinitely, both the rebels and their supporters in the West may quietly encourage this refugee buildup outside Libya. Operating from such a sanctuary, Special Forces advisers could recruit, train, and equip a much better quality resistance force than has been in the field thus far.

EGYPTIAN ARMY SPECIAL FORCES

FRONT AND CENTER

PREPARE TO ENGAGE

YOU WILL PREVAIL

INSHALLAH

[Hans Bulvai]

I understand why Skyhook supports this and it is mostly because he is an honorable and decent human being.
The Bush cabal can't even hold a candle to someone who served his country because he genuinly loves it but it seems that he even loves humanity a little bit more. That is why I respect him.

But I can not agree that this is a good thing despite how much that desert boy deserves whatever he gets. But he is not worst than Mubarak or that other guy, arguably, even a little better. But Libyans are not as civilized as Egyptians or Tunisians so the facade change will not work with them. They had to be split up so the old flag was revived and voila.

The average Arab is cursing the Arab League today.

[noddy]

as torchwood mentioned elsewhere, its important to remember that many in the uk still smart at lockerbie, and the lack of consequence for killing those civillians... how do these blowback justifications work, im getting all confusalised.

[Mr. Perfect]

Fine, then attack when the time is right and with a plan that can succeed, not when the time has passed and the plan has no chance of success.

[skyhook77sfg]

HanS BULVAI

IT IS AN HONOR

to converse with one so far away

yet so close even when we disagree...

thank you for your kind words.

[noddy]

no argument, just providing context for the british involvement.

it all appears too little, too late... all musing aside, i only thought it made sense if they had ground forces ready to do a proper job of it (arab and sas) and they did it earlier while the uprising was still making progress.... my mushroom sense of it now is "yet another intractable mess in the middle east".

[AzariLoveIran]

[noddy]

the frenchies playing blood for oil is about that can be seen and does put alot of their anti american rhetoric in the bin where it belongs.

the british (at least internally) will get away with it because of lockerbie.

[Mr. Perfect]

Not quite so clear cut...

[noddy]

[skyhook77sfg]

From an interview with a journalist who has been in Arab countries for 20 years:


El-Gawhary: Zuletzt hat mich eine Geschichte aus Libyen beeindruckt. Sie handelte von einem Mann, der 48 Jahre alt war – so alt wie ich. Er hatte ein gutes Leben, war bei einer Ölfirma angestellt, hatte zwei Töchter, die eine gute Ausbildung genossen. Allerdings lebte er in der Nähe einer Kaserne in Bengasi: Tagelang versuchten Jugendliche die Kaserne zu stürmen und wurden von den Gaddafi-Leuten abgeschossen. Eines Tages hat er die Verletzten abtransportiert und kam mit blutigen Händen heim. Seine Familie hatte keine Ahnung, welche Konsequenz er daraus zog. Er packte sein Auto voll mit Kochgasflaschen, kaufte Dynamit und fuhr mit dem Auto in das Tor der Kaserne. Er hat sich in die Luft gesprengt, damit das Ganze aufhört. Damit die Jugendlichen die Kaserne stürmen können. Dieser Mann war eben kein Fanatiker, er war ein ganz normaler Familienvater, ein Mensch wie du und ich. Nur irgendwann hat er diese Situation nicht mehr ausgehalten und die Konsequenz gezogen. Wenn man das rüberbringt, wenn die Leute verstehen, warum jemand so etwas macht, dann ist es eine gute Geschichte.

http://www.falter.at/web/print/detail.php?id=1354" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


A story from Libya just made an impression. It's about a 48 year old man...my age. He had a good life, employed by an oil company, had two daughters enjoying good educations. He lived near a caserne in Benghazi which local youth tried repeatedly to storm but were shot by the Gadaffhi people.

One day after transporting the wounded he came home, hands bloodied. His family had no idea what consequences he drew from that. He packed his car full of propane tanks, bought dynamite and drove through the caserne gate. He blew himself up to stop all this and allow the young people to storm the caserne. This man was no fanatic., just a normal father of a family, a human like you and me. But at some point he couldn't tolerate the situation and suffered the consequences.

If this can be relayed, if people can understand why someone does this, than it's a good story.

[Torchwood]

[YMix]

Romania will do its duty as a NATO member and send troops to join the coalition. More precisely... a frigate.



Meet the Fregata Regele Ferdinand. Formerly known as HMS Coventry (F98), .

[Tinker]

[Mr. Perfect]

You don't have any idea what you're talking about.

[Alexis]

Since we're discussing links between France and Gaddhafi, it is certainly the appropriate time to have a look at

We're speaking of the long-lived theory, hard to prove but nonetheless coherent, that Gaddhafi could be the son of a Corsican aircraft pilot who died for France in 1943... after having fathered the Guide?


Father and son?

See, that would explain France's refusal to target Gaddhafi's life... he may be French in fact. More precisely: Corsican. Just like Napoléon, whose high image of self he certainly shares ...

If that theory is true, the ultimate irony is that the AFB in Solenzara, Corsica, from which most of French aircraft are flying to Libya, is named about the very same Albert Preziosi, who would be father of Dear Colonel...

[noddy]

[skyhook77sfg]

SAS 'Smash' squads on the ground in Libya to mark targets for coalition jets


SAS teams are on the ground in Libya with orders to pinpoint and destroy Colonel Gaddafi’s weapons.
Dozens of the crack troops have been operating behind enemy lines to identify targets for bombing raids.
Highly-trained units, known as ‘Smash’ teams for their prowess and destructive ability, have carried out secret reconnaissance missions.It is understood the soldiers have reported the location of airfields, supply routes, radar stations and Libya’s anti-aircraft defence batteries.

This intelligence was used by British defence chiefs to help RAF Tornado fighters and the Royal Navy’s submarine in the Mediterranean, HMS Triumph, deliver devastating strikes.Combined with air and space reconnaissance, their undercover operations have bolstered the Coalition’s mission to destroy the tyrant’s air defence systems and impose a no-fly zone.
A senior defence source confirmed that there are special forces operating in Libya and that more could be sent.
The source said: ‘What is ruled out? An invasion. What is not ruled out? Everything else.

‘You want to have men on the ground doing laser targeting and reconnaissance, gathering intelligence about the situation and updating the target list.

‘The other point is that if one of our planes gets shot down you have to send people in to get them out.’
The British soldiers are thought to have been on the ground for more than three weeks with Special Operations forces from other countries.


These troops on the ground use a process called ‘painting a target’ to pinpoint a site to be attacked. A laser beam from a portable device is bounced off a building or military installation from a few hundred yards.
This is detected by the aircraft or a missile sensor, which then deploys the weapon.

The special forces have also been trying to discover the whereabouts of the Libyan army’s most potent anti-aircraft weapons.Libya has more than 216 ground-to-air missiles, with the majority deployed around Tripoli.Despite dating back to the 1980s, the Russian-made SA5A ‘Gammon’ long-range system can fire missiles between 150 and 200 miles, far enough to hit targets across the Mediterranean.It is capable of shooting down commercial airliners, a chilling threat made by Gaddafi after the international community secured UN-backed military action to rein in the despot. If switched on, the system can be identified by warplanes with electronic counter-measures.

But Gaddafi is thought to have hidden the firepower to prevent its detection.

SAS soldiers are also hoping to find arms dumps containing some of Libya’s 400-plus SA-7 ‘Grail’ portable anti-aircraft surface-to-air missiles.A Western intelligence briefing note warned that British jets carrying out bombing and strafing runs below 15,000ft were vulnerable to the weapons.The danger posed to state-of-the-art warplanes by ageing missile launchers was highlighted in 1999 when a U.S. F-117 stealth bomber was brought down over Serbia.
The SAS units will be called on to help in case Western jets are shot down. They are also co-ordinating a search with rebel forces for British nationals in Libya.


Members of the Special Boat Service and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment are also operating behind enemy lines in Libya, special forces sources said.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1HOMgAqxo


ON THE GROUND THREE WEEKS...

WITH OTHER SPECIAL FORCES

(AUSTRALIAN SAS,USA CAG/SF OD DELTA, FRENCH BFST)


MOAMAR THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU SOON

PROBABLY ONE 22 SAS OPERATOR WITH ONE

9 MM SINGLE ACTION BROWNING HIGH POWER

WILL BE THE LAST THING YOU WILL SEE

[Azrael]

It's not hard to believe that Gadhafi is part Corsican, Catalan, whatever. It's hard to believe that it would matter to the French military at this point.

[skyhook77sfg]

corsicans have an international reputation

for many dark things...

[Alexis]