We are at war now.

Miscellaneous Current Events
1

They finally declared a no fly zone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110318/ap_on_re_af/af_libya

These Benghazi rebels were weak. They were untrained. Many of them are young boys who never fired a rifle in their life. The most experienced were elderly men who last held a rifle nearly 40 years ago. This rebellion was a tragedy that was doomed to be a failure from the moment it started.

I had thought the decision to impose a no-fly zone was deferred long enough that the rebellion would be long suppressed before it would even matter. But right at the last inch of this fight, they declared a no-fly zone. And now, as Patrick Buchanan explains, it can only lead to war.

Militarism is not about building an army to fight wars abroad, but for holding power within. Latin American military junta dictatorships would not have lasted in a war against any western nation, but they had gunships, tanks, and targetting systems to put down an internal rebellion. They would treat dissident citizens as foreign soldiers. These rebels should have known that Gadaffi keeps a large army precisely to destroy armed rebellions such as this one. All this loss of life, all of it was for absolutely nothing.

So much foolishness. From so many sides. The rebels, for challenging a mad dog like Gadaffi. Gadaffi, for taking a decision that will leave Libya little more than an autarky now. And now the West, for sending fighter planes to bomb down Libyan installations.

2

This rebellion was a tragedy that was doomed to be a failure from the moment it started.

Only militarily. Stronger armies can be defeated in other ways. Our secession from Britain was largely a failure militarily; we beat them in other ways.

3

Sure, I think formal control in Benghazi will be much more difficult to implement for Gadaffi. Even after the rebellion is suppressed, Gadaffi will know that Benghazi region does not consent to him, and he will expend more than he will gain in trying to bring order there. It will be too expensive to maintain any administration there, and every transportation of a government official or supplies may require armed escort.

A no fly zone, either way, is pointless, because tanks can do what planes can not.

4

Lew Rockwell is definitely right about one thing, politicians are always lying.

The no fly zone is [sic] legal sanction for the USG to exercise control of the air over another nation, nothing less.

5

Don’t discount what an insurgency of desperate civilians can do. Look at Iraq and Afghanistan. Gadaffi doesn’t have the taxation powers to lead a 10 year crusade against “terrorists”- especially with an army that might have some sympathy for their own people.

In other words, the rebels died in vain. The U.N. needs another puppet.

6

Gadaffi can make enough money selling his oil and weapons to morally flexible governments.