Qaddafi has fled to Venezuela.
Libyan air force bombing civilians; two pilots refuse and fly to Malta.
Clerics endorse rebellion.
This follows on yesterday’s chaos.
As usual, Wikipedia has one of the more thorough summaries of the situation.
Libya Is Collapsing
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2 responses to “Libya Is Collapsing”
I expect that for your basic dictator, the air force is the most problematic branch of the military. Look at Saddam’s, during Gulf War I – just took off and… WTF? Iran? No way! Likewise the number of Soviet fighter pilots that flew to Japan or South Korea on a lark.
The Navy could be a problem, but not as dramatic. A ship has a large crew, making it difficult to “turn” sufficient to defect, but a fighter, or even a bomber, takes one or two guys to say “Screw this.”
Remember Hitler’s remark? Something like “I have a Prussian Army, a Christian Navy, and a National Socialist Air Force.” The Luftwaffe was the most politicized element of the Wehrmacht (of course I am discounting the Waffen SS as being outside the regular recruiting and command structure). The same potential problem probably explains to some extent the Soviet reliance on ground based control of their fighters, plus the lack of international frequencies on their radios.
Libya may hate us hereafter, or love us. But nonetheless, they have the right. (Egypt too – and even Iran way back when – and I wish we’d learned something about supporting dictators back then.)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ”
How can we call ourselves American and deny others the same right?