Benghazi Besieged By Qaddafi's Barbarians

There are reports today on the BBC (UK) and NPR (U.S.) that Qaddafi's tanks have entered Benghazi's suburbs, and the city is being shelled by his artillery and gunboats. Meanwhile his despicable lying frontmen insist they're observing a "ceasefire." Obviously their grotesque lies are aimed at his domestic base and sympathizers in other countries like Mali. (NY Times had an article on his popularity there, thanks to his handing out Libya's oil wealth in that country and others- instead of making life better for the Libyan people, in which case he wouldn't be facing a rebelling by the mass of the Libyan people in the first place. But the Libyans are just stepping stones for the grandiose dreams of this megalomaniac to be "King of Kings" - one of his own self-aggrandizing monikers for himself- of all Africa and even a global player. Yet as out of touch with reality on fundamental levels as he is, he is very crafty on a tactical and even strategic level. A horrible combination of insanity and criminal savvy. A sidenote- idiot fellow-traveling leftists are always taken in by the cynical rhetorical spoutings of such tyrants. Both left and right have authoritarians and pro-human rights types.)

Another point of the absurd insistence that they aren't attacking Benghazi and bombarding Misrata- which Qaddafi has cut off water to for 3 days now- is to pretend to be abiding by the UN resolution. That's purely delusional

A nastier move Qaddafi is planning is placing human shields around possible Allied bombing targets. Then he'll scream that it's those awful Western Imperialists who are killing civilians, not Qaddafi. (After all, why would he kill his own people? They love him. Those rebels are all Al-Qaeda terrorists, or kids drugged by Al-Qaeda, or traitors. Or rats and dogs, as one of his lovely sons says.}

President Hamlet (Obama) dithered for 2 weeks, while the French and British pressed to do something. According to today's NY Times, Hillary Clinton (Sec. of State) and Susan Rice (U.S. Ambassador to UN) pressed him to act. Interestingly, the hard men of the Pentagon and "National Security" orgs., in effect took Qaddafi's side and insisted that the U.S. had no "vital interests" in Libya, no "national security" dog in that fight. War Sec. Robert Gates, in testimony to Congress, grossly exaggerated the difficulty of imposing a no-fly zone on Libya and acted as if Qaddafi has a fearsome air force and air defense system. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper (who told the Senate March 10 that the Libyan rebels couldn't overthrow Qaddafi: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sc-dc-0311-clapper-20110310,0,1380828.story - he's a retired general who doesn't "direct" anything, his entire office being a pointless propaganda joint for the "war on terrorism," not the superpowerhouse controlling the rest of the vast repressive apparatus of the U.S. as it was advertised to be).

Today the French are the first to strike Qaddifi's murderous minions from the air. Just as they were the first (and so far, only) country to recognize the rebels as the legitimate government of Libya. Maybe the tough-guy Americans who mock the French as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" will take back that ridicule. (Oh by the way, tough guys, the U.S. has never been invaded by a superior enemy since 1812, whereas the French had to fight for their national survival at the hands of the Germans 3 times within about 50 years. The U.S. has a hemisphere all to itself, filled with much weaker nations it can bully and boss around at will. Except for Cuba, which is why the U.S. is so hysterical about that nation. And the French Navy won the Revolutionary war for America. Their fleet blocked the escape of Cornwallis, enabling Washington to finally win.)

It turns out the Canadians and even the Danes are doing more than the U.S. Both are contributing fighter jets to the mission over Libya. The U.S. says it will just shoot missiles from the Mediterranean at Libyan air defense installations. That's playing it nice and safe!

The Guardian (UK) reports that two whole U.S. planes were seen taking off from a base in Britain. That's getting tough with Qaddafi. (Or maybe they were flying to the grocery to pick up some mile?)

Late Saturday- 112 cruise missiles launched by U.S. and UK naval vessels at Qaddafi's military assets (at about $1 million a pop).  Good news indeed. And the French destroy an armored column including artillery and rockets that was threatening Benghazi.