“If you don’t want to do something, you rely on the diplomatic side. It is not enough when people are dying,” said Iman Bugaighis, spokeswoman for the revolutionary council. “We need more than diplomacy. We need a no-fly zone but we need more than that. We need air strikes. I think they know where to bomb if they want to bomb. They know how to intervene. It’s urgent.”
The rebels have appealed for weapons supplies, saying they are being outgunned by Gaddafi’s forces. However, Bugaighis said the revolutionary administration remains opposed to foreign troops intervening in Libya on the ground’
This is a game changer in my opinion. We should at the very least provide weapons to the rebels and I would be quite happy to see western planes bombing the fuck out of Saif Gaddafi and his cronies.How can revolutionaries in the uk gainsay what rebels fighting and dying are crying out for? Quite easily is the aswer – far better to keep your revolutionary credentials than soil your hands with reality – the reality that the rebels will die unles we support them.Not that tough a choice is it – but spare me the crocodile tears comrades. Contrast with the Left’s calls for support for republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
Ian Bone 
Air strikes but no troops. Too fucking easy. Reagan actioned them in the 1980s in no time at all. Within 72 hours Gaddiffi will be history if all those warships and war planes on standby in the central Mediterranean are ordered into action.
“We” ?!! Whose the fuck is we ian? Last time i checked the armory of anarchists it consisted of a few smoke bombs and a few half filled cans of lager.
On a serious note, isn’t this the same as Kosovo? Wasn’t it the KLA who were making appeals from the west to bomb serbia to prevent a human catastrophe all the while committing atrocities themselves. I’m in no way saying that is the case for the rebels in Libya but anarchists can’t make calls for anything in these matters, why? Because its not our job to. All we can do is make sure the movement as it emerges here on March 26th is as linked to the cause of those fighting against dictatorship in Libya as they are in other parts of the arab world. Its all connected, and until we have achieved our aim of making the UK ungovernable to the ruling elite ( the same that armed and supported Gaddafi – including the Met Police – who are now killing the rebels ) these things will occur again and again and again.
We are powerless to do anything else
we are not wanted (despite what kinds of false sentiment the BBC might be trying to drum up) . we should stay away . we’ve got enough blood on our hands.
if we are going to offer military help anywhere in the world it should be in taking out the fascist government in SrI Lanka.
as far as North Africa is concerned the likes of Turkey should be allowed to play a greater part in removing Gaddafi. The Uk has no right whatsover to be interfering.
I attended the rally here today in solidarity with the Libyan resistance with mixed feelings. Opinion was divided on the no fly zone with most of the Libyans (who were the majority of people in attendance) in favour. The argument against them was given a hearing on the megaphone too.
People are desperate and I can understand why they are calling for the no fly zone. I still feel that any deal you make with the devil is bound to backfire. So while I stand in solidarity with my bredz and all the Libyan brothers and sisters I still agree with the angry arab here:
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/03/no-foreign-armies-in-libya.html
I also want to highlight an issue that cannot be swept under the carpet:
http://blackagendareport.com/content/race-and-arab-nationalism-libya
It’s sad but true that if the west ‘intervenes’ it would change the whole character of the arab uprisings, I think the US and Europe is comfortable with the destruction of the Libyan revolt, just as they are telling protesters in Bahrain to be moderate and negotiate with the monarchy there…The west are still Gadaffi’s allies, whether we like it or not, because the markets want stability, and dictatorships are better for their shareholders, end of. The world is still an outrageous shithole-but we knew that, right?
aaahhh the futility of it all.
“anothers left , anothers right…..you talk about your revolution,well, thats fine” blahdee blahdee blah.
you can’t treat global events and issues in the same way you would local ones ,it just wont work.
no fly zone now !!! imagine the nightmare fate that’ll befall the libyan people if the colonel regains full control .
march 26th might be a good time to remind our glorious leaders that despite their smug righteous indignation against the libyan regime that they have been complicit in the subjugation of the libyan people.
the road to freedom will be long.
@Rasta- The issue that should’nt be swept under the carpet. Good link, if very, very depressing. A few weeks before the uprisings Gadaffi was using racism (his own and Europes) to line his pocket by demanding more Euros to stop sub-Saharan Africans getting to the Meditteranean- He actually threatened to “Turn Europe black” if he didn’t get his dosh. Too many revolutions in the past have drawn out the poison of racism, and it looks as if this is no exception, although it must be said, some of the reported atrocities committed by the ‘mercenaries’ (Chadians troops/guerillas being trained in Southern Libya) sound particularly vicious… Needless to say this does not justify the arbitrary torture and/or murder of innocent black Libyans and immigrant workers. Like you say too, if you sup with the devil, make sure you have a long spoon. Our moral imperatives surely don’t include calling on our disgusting governments to drop bombs anywhere, if we asked the to do so on Libya, it is as good as admitting that the removal of Saddam was a good thing…But we remember the Marsh arabs and the Shi’ite uprisings in Iraq….We shouldn’t be so naive as to think our governments would bomb for decent, ‘humane’ reasons and not purely for their business interests…
Al makes a good point about who is “we”, and that the anarchist armoury probably consists of only a few smoke “bombs”, but personally ( right or wrong ) i would be happy to see the rebels supplied with anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.
Not only that, but does anybodyseriously trust the ‘accuracy’ of the RAF, USNAF, USMC, or the USAAF pilots? When I think of the Taliban being bombed to fuck, it might give me a little glow of satisfaction, but it’s short lived, because I know that farmer’s compounds and wedding parties are also being obliterated with cluster-bombs and anti-personnel fragmentation flechettes…
I disagree with the majority here. I think it’s crude ‘internationalism’ to suggest the rebels should be armed or collaborate with various bourgeoisies – if this is even possible and genuine. I have a far from perfect proletarian consciousness but most of the comments above and Ian’s post comes across as liberal and providing a bourgeois or capitalist ‘answer’ to a problems which cannot be solved by them and only lead to continuing or further barbarism. If comrades think Libya is revolutionary (and this is very questionable) then wouldn’t proletarian internationalism be to spread insurrection to the surrounding countries who are also experiencing concrete struggles? That to me is proletarian internationalism in one sense, not asking our class enemy to give weapons to rebels who may not even be a progressive fraction of our class even if they are of our class. If we take the ideology of what is being proposed by several comrades above then lets ask the various bourgeoisies to go in and sort out all the barbarism in the wold. Arm the ‘Iraqi Resistance’? Islamist fighters in Afghanistan, they’re quite reactionary but they’re fighting a brutal dictatorship which is much worse in the greater scheme of things, no? The last thing we should be doing is rallying behind calls of the bourgeoisie, they are not and can not be proletarian internationalists. If comrades want to call for arms to rebels then the calls must be towards the proles and non exploiting strata in the other (nearby) countries which are in open struggle which would not only deepen the revolts where they are but make available further developments in the class struggle. i.e Egyptians, Tunisians, Algerians arm yourselves and your Libyan comrades?
I would like comrades to argue against some of my points as I am not bothered about being right or wrong I only seek to improve my own understanding and others of revolutionary perspectives, comradely.
“We should at the very least provide weapons to the rebels and I would be quite happy to see western planes bombing the fuck out of Saif Gaddafi and his cronies.”
“We” = the UK ruling class supporting their own interests by supporting rulers and would-be rulers throughout the world.
I know you believe in standing in bourgeois elections, Bonehead, but are you applying for William Hague’s job as well?
*My post was mainly directed at the comments under blog post LIBYAN REBELS FACING MILITARY DEFEAT – DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM?
I won’t say too much here because the post is old and is maybe not worth it now.
However, I was surprised by Ian’s opinion and most answers in this topic. Before we automatically support anything that seems revolutionary we ought to make some research on it.
The rebels that you support are not as revolutionary as you might think (raising the flag of king Idris cannot be considered as revolutionary) and the people who are in the armed forces and in the opposition are former members of Kadhaffi’s regime. Repression in Libya is not worse than in Yemen or Bahrain (the bombing of civilians in Benghazi never took place and if you found a picture or video of it I sure ‘d like to see it!). The reason of UN’s security council to intervene in Libya is to be found in Kadhaffi’s foreign policy which has been against Western interests (see also the Libya’s funding of the African Monetary Fund, the funding of the creation of African telecommunication sattelites which will spare africa from renting western sattelites, Kadhaffi’s support of the Palestinian cause and his intention to raise Libya’s participation in its oil production from 30 to 51%). Therefore the western support of the armed rebels is more of an excuse to eliminate an embarassing ennemy in north africa.
Kadhaffi’s regime is certainly corrupted, repressive etc etc but supporting the radical Islamists of the eastern tirbes (as opposed to the western tribes which have traditionally been close to Kadhaffi) of libya who said that “they will be gratefull and wont forget the help of the west” (which in other words mean that they will sold out Libya’s ressources to the west) is not the most revolutionary thing to do!
We should be careful of who we support and the key to any confusion is to inform ourselves before drawing any conclusion. And we also should remember that “if we find ourselves in the same camp as our class opponents then we have to take a step back and make a reflexion on the possible mistakes we made”.
p.s: when I said people who are in the opposition armed forces were in former member of Kadhaffi’s regime I meant the commanders, people like Abdul Fatah Younis and Mustapha Abud Jalil.