Desert War

02/23/11 - The last time names like Benghazi and Tobruk led headlines Montgomery and Rommel were dueling it out in the Libyan desert during WWII. Today demonstrators, or should we properly call them “freedom fighters,” claim they have taken Tobruk! The cities of Bayda and Benghazi are now also firmly in control of the people, though there have been reports of French speaking African militias roaming at night with mischief in mind, and the residents believe they are mercenaries from Chad. 

The liberation of the eastern half of the nation has cost perhaps 1000 lives thus far, but this time it is Arab blood staining the sands of this famous desert region, where German, Italian, British and New Zealanders once fought and died from, El Alamein in Egypt to Tunisia. Gaddafi is slowly losing his control over the nation. Beduin tribes long loyal to his regime have declared their support for the opposition, and several interior ministers have resigned. Elements of the army, particularly in the east, have also joined the uprising to fight for freedom, and soldiers in Tobruk are directing traffic and helping to keep order for the new civilian authorities there. Tripoli is likely to be the bloody finale of this latest desert campaign, where the front line begins at the doorstep of each and every Libyan, who must decide that day who’s side they are on when they cross that threshold. The choices they make will decide the fate of their nation, an the lives of Libyans in generations to come.

But where is the United States, that bastion of freedom and democracy?  President Obama was reportedly “considering all appropriate actions” regarding Libya, but for the moment that seems restricted to making news statements and arranging the safe evacuation of US citizens still in the country. I hope it occurs to the us diplomats that support for freedom now could have a dramatic and lasting positive effect, and achieve more than a decade of fighting and a trillion dollars fed into that war machine in the Middle East.

Our 300 Spartans

I came across a disturbing photo this morning of "our boys" in the army diligently running through a training exercise to control....Us!  Never mind the venerable Posse Comitatus act passed way back 1878 that prohibited the military from any domestic law enforcement, based on the old fear of the quartering of British armies in the colonies. That was one of the many protections of our liberty that were quietly dismantled by Bush and his Republican cohorts in the 8 years when the country suffered so much damage under his administration, including 9-11, two unwinnable wars, the financial malfeasance and collapse of Wall Street and the onset of the second Great Depression to name but a few.

Lest we forget as we flip from the super bowl to Lady Gaga, to the next holiday sale, those were the halcyon days that brought us the great misnomer of our day, a piece of legislation called "The Patriot Act," which was also quietly "extended" by Change.gov and the new congress this month. Yet another blight on the constitution is  H.R. 5122, the John Warner "Defense Authorization Act" for Fiscal Year 2007, signed by president Bush on October 17, 2006, that gives the president the power to employ the armed forces to restore public order in any state of the United States.  Bye, bye Posse Comitatus. I guess the Founding Fathers, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton and all the rest had it wrong, and Bush and Cheney had to straighten them out, with a little help from John Warner.

The photo showed ranks of heavily armored young soldiers with what looked like kevlar padding on their shoulders and shins, and visored gray helmets. They carried clear plastic shields with the first rank forming a shield-wall and the second rank raising their shields up to form a roof. They looked like our modern version of the 300 Spartans or perhaps a cohort of Roman soldiers. Other troops wearing sweatshirts and blue jeans (to look more like you and me) and carrying brooms and sticks and bottles, were taunting and jabbing at the silent ranks of our new military crowd control force, training here in the good old USA, land of the free. Oh, they haven't shown up in Wisconsin yet to start busting open the heads of teachers and public workers who have pulled a Tahrir Square in the government buildings there the last week. But Lord knows they will show up somewhere on US soil one day...."our boys."

The US government was so quick to condemn the actions of authoritarian rulers in the Middle East, but should that sort of unrest ever visit our shores I wonder... I just wonder how far the new rubber bullet firing machine gun the army is deploying soon will serve, and whether the real bullets will start firing over here as well. Because a few battalions, or even a few brigades or divisions of "our boys" will not suffice to maintain order here in the US of A if people ever turn off their TV sets, get really hungry or angry, and take to the streets. These security forces will serve in a pinch, for small demonstrations and such. But there will come an awful moment when things get out of hand in these "uprisings" and I am from a generation who knows only too well what happens..."Four dead in Ohio..." was a song that led a generation of young Americans to protest the Viet Nam war. The lyrics "Got to get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down" cut through to our Rubber Souls like rubber bullets.

So if things ever go the way of Egypt over here "our boys" will be faced with a real thorny dilemma. You see, the government authorities who order their deployment on US soil are not the United States of America. The People they are deployed against are, in final and incontrovertible fact, the nation they have sworn to serve. We the People are the United States of America, not Congress, the Supreme Court or the Executive branch of our government--all entities created to serve the People. Our 300 Spartans had better damn well remember that as they oil their rifles in the barracks. Because should they ever forget, the hundreds of millions of Americans in this country will remind them fairly quickly. You see, "our boys," with most of the entire army deployed in Iraq for 8 years, and all firing live ammo with tanks, air support and the full weight of our military power, could not control the 23 million over there. Fat chance they will ever be able to control the 300 million over here.

The Great Uprising

There hasn't been a Arab uprising since the days the Sheiks first assumed power after Lawrence of Arabia led the rebellion against the Turks during WWI. The historic revolution in Egypt continues to fuel the fires of unrest throughout the region.

02/19/11 - The violence continued in Libya where at least 15 people at a funeral joined the dead when police opened fire on the mourners this weekend in the turmoil of Benghazi. This is likely to continue, as the 40+ year dictatorship of Gaddafi will employ a host of foreign mercenaries to crush his opposition, much like the clashes in Bahrain where the government there employs Sudanese, Palestinian, Pakistani and other mercenary security forces. But the military there pulled out of the Pearl Roundabout where they shot and killed several people yesterday. The video, captured on cell phone, circulated to CNN, and perhaps the wealthy Sheiks decided it would be bad press to precipitate further violence. Yet the unrest on the shores of the Persian Gulf, where the US 5th Fleet maintains its headquarters for the region, is more than unsettling.  The powers that be in the region cannot allow one of the Gulf  States to go down, as the threat implied to the House of Saud would be dire indeed.
Meanwhile, demonstrations, protests and clashes with police continue all across North Africa in Algeria, Yemen and Morocco as the fire of uprising continues to burn through the Arab world. The life and death edge to the demonstrations overseas make the five day protest marches in Wisconsin look like a boy scout outing by comparison.

02/17/11 - Police waited until well after dark in the Capitol of Bahrain, then launched a massive surprise attack on the sleeping protesters in their roundabout square, killing six and wounding many dozens more. The armored cars, tear gas and batons were liberally applied. Meanwhile a massive “Day of Rage” protest was carried out in Libya, where 12 were reported killed. The government there has reportedly released convicts from prison, paid them, armed them and turned them loose on the crowd. Clearly the remaining authoritarian states are reacting violently to the spreading protest movement, having seen what it will lead to in Egypt if they do not put the fire out quickly.

02/16/11 - The word “Revolution” was made all too real in the three brief weeks this story has dominated the news. The fire was lit by a single man, who set himself on fire in Tunisia to protest the oppression and vast economic disparity there, and it has burned throughout the Arab world. Egypt’s example has ignited protests in Iran, where the government prepared the most extreme measures possible, death by hanging, for anyone caught organizing protests. Protesters have now clashed with police in the Libyan city of Benghazi  and they are calling for their own “Day of Rage” on Thursday, 2/17/11. In Bahrain the death of two protesters led to an almost unprecedented apology by the king, but growing numbers are now gathering in a central square of the capitol there and vowing to make it their own Tahrir Square. They want the corrupt Prime minister to go. Violence escalated in Yemen as crowds there call for the removal of President Saleh. They have been attacked by baton wielding police and plain clothes security forces dubbed “loyalists.”  In Iraq, no stranger to violence, thousands marched in Kut to protest for better services, and stormed the local government council building there.
 

It remains to be seen whether any of these other fires will spread to real revolution as it did in Egypt. All these ancillary rebellions are in their early stages, with batons, gun wielding police, media crackdowns, and vigorous action by secret services to ferret out the protest leaders--club them, beat them, shut it down.  The uneasy calm in Syria is imposed by a ruthless and much feared security apparatus there. In Kuwait the government is literally buying its citizens good will by paying them a huge monthly bonus, over $3000, (US) to each citizen per month while the turmoil continues in the region. In Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud sits in its purloined billions, silent, corrupt, a stagnant remnant from an old era of sheikdoms, male dominance and rigid religious autocracy. Some of these weathered trees may succumb to the fire of revolution now spreading through the region, others will stand, resolute, and only time will bring change.