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.
