OT - Khadaffy's regime falling

[natehale1971]

Believe me... i really want to see the spread of western-style of democratic republician forms of government all around the world... pure democracy not so much. a tyranny of the majority is still a tyranny, and has been what sparks crimes against humanity in the vein of ethnic cleansing more often than not.

I was raised with 'Prepare for the Worse and Hope for the Best" type of mindset. And that's what I am doing... To many times we've seen the Arab Spring turning into something less than what we hoped it to be (hell, the NIGHT they were celebrating in the streets of Egypt... the crowd was gang raping a female journalist when the spotlights on the cameraman's camera had burned out).

And now with the growing number of attacks that are being made on religious minorities (rapes, murders, arsons, ect) and the creation of National Socialist Parties in several of the "Arab Spring" countries has been frightening. And now that Foreign press are reporting that al-Qeada associates are in high ranking positions of the Libyan Revolutionary Governing Council....

I'm cautiously optiomitistic... but worried none the less.

[95th Rifleman]

I've always said these things should be left to the people.

If a people hate their government so much they will themselves rise. Western involvement was limited to air support and aid so the new government will see us as genuine allies rather than an army of conquest like the Iraqis did.

[natehale1971]

yup...

and we don't have the baggage of telling the Iraqi people in 1991 "if you rise up, we will come in and liberate you" and when they did that... we just stood by and watched as they were butchered. THAT was the biggest reason we had problems in Iraq after Saddam's forces folded. One of my friends who was Psychological Ops and Civil Affairs who worked with the Iraqi civilians said that was the biggest reason the Iraqi people were not willing to take chances with us...

[kcdusk]

Just seen some footage on the tv. Interviews with "rebels". But the scene that caught my eye was an old man, he had big bullet-linked chain, maybe 10 or 12 round belts that were empty. He was putting large caliber rounds (25mm or 30mm is my guess) into the chain link. One bullet at a time he put a round in a link, then with a wooden mallet hammered it once to force the round into the link, then he put the second round in & hammered it ....

[95th Rifleman]

Originally Posted by kcdusk

Just seen some footage on the tv. Interviews with "rebels". But the scene that caught my eye was an old man, he had big bullet-linked chain, maybe 10 or 12 round belts that were empty. He was putting large caliber rounds (25mm or 30mm is my guess) into the chain link. One bullet at a time he put a round in a link, then with a wooden mallet hammered it once to force the round into the link, then he put the second round in & hammered it ....

In Libya, armourer is less a career, more an extreme sport.

[LBraden]

That sounds ALMOST as bad as some of the "fresh out of Sandhurst" Lieutenants that my father has seen.

However, when needs must, ya gotta do the job, I have to say, for a bunch of people with guns, they have succeeded very well.

[mikeo80]

The biggest thing I see happening is Kaddafi doing a scorched earth as he goes out. Like the Russians did pulling back from Hitler and Napoleon. I feel sure that MK has enough loyalists still that he could order a suicide attack on the oil facilities of Libya.

My $0.02

Mike

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by kcdusk

Just seen some footage on the tv. Interviews with "rebels". But the scene that caught my eye was an old man, he had big bullet-linked chain, maybe 10 or 12 round belts that were empty. He was putting large calibre rounds (25mm or 30mm is my guess) into the chain link. One bullet at a time he put a round in a link, then with a wooden mallet hammered it once to force the round into the link, then he put the second round in & hammered it ....

What scares the pants off me is seeing footage of armed men emptying magazines straight up into the air in celebration. how many of the wounded in their hospitals are battle casualties and how many are results of that absolute stupidity!?
My guess is, based on more footage of their tactics (empty a mag from the hip in the general direction of the enemy), that "accidents" account for a very large percentage of their casualties.

What's even worse than the small arms is the ZSU-23-2 I saw on the back of a pick up firing straight up (and obviously not at a plane) from within the concrete jungle of a city (possibly Tripoli). 5.45 and 7.62 are nasty enough when they come back down, but 23mm HE is really going to leave a bruise!

[Webstral]

When Iraq beat Saudi Arabia in the 2005 or 2006 World Cup playoffs, the city lit up with "happy fire". It looked like the images of the first night of air attacks in Operation Desert Storm. Forty-nine people died from flying objects coming back down. Fortunately, I was under the roof of an observation tower and not on foot patrol.

[Mohoender]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

What scares the pants off me is seeing footage of armed men emptying magazines straight up into the air in celebration. how many of the wounded in their hospitals are battle casualties and how many are results of that absolute stupidity!?

I agree with you but I have seen much more stupid things. I recently bought a crossbow and, then, received advertisements from the saler. These advertisement were for gunsets intended for celebrations: go at a fest or weddings and fire your gun in hanger to celebrate (with blanks but still).

[simonmark6]

My mother picked up on this too, she was concerned by three things:
1) She thought you were supposed to point the shooty bit at the enemy
2) It seemed wasteful of ammunition
3) It was leaving a lot of mess on the floors unnecessarily

She thought that Libyan mothers needed to have a word...