The YoungWorld

Darkest Souls

Taken from the telegraph:

The overarching objective of ousting Gaddafi has proved just strong enough to hold the rebel ranks together, but the fissures have been obvious to everybody and have grown ever more apparent since the fall of Tripoli.

Through a combination of eccentric policy-making and utter ruthlessness, Gaddafi was able to hold together a country artificially formed from three distinct regional entities united only in the last century.

The bickering that has erupted in rebel ranks has taken on a worryingly regional aspect, with easterners arguing that they deserve a greater share of power for being at the forefront of the rebellion and Berbers in the Nafusa Mountains complaining that, once again, they are under-represented.

Adding to the underlying sense of chaos, the more than 40 separate militias that took part in the rebellion often seem to put local loyalties above the national good. Rather than handing over the contents of liberated munitions stores to the NTC, they have spirited them back to their regional strongholds.

Overcoming these divisions will be one of the key challenges facing Libya’s future leaders. With the country now officially liberated, the NTC has promised to dissolve itself to create an interim government that will oversee national elections — the country’s first — after a period of eight months.

The NTC and Nato are hoping that Lybia will be in full multi party election's by 2013 and are still debating where and when to bury colonel Godaffi's body.

Should he have a plot of land in which he can be remembered by, by loyalists?

Do you think the situation was handled in the correct way?

An inquery in currently underway by the Human Rights council into Godaffi's death due to two video's published one in which he was alive and another in which he was dead. Rebels are claiming to have taken the final shot to his head but some suspect millitants of doing a bit more than was nessescary in his capture.

Thoughts?
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- A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials-

Fort Europe · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 9:26 am Post subject:

The future of Libya does indeed hang in the balance, and I think the next few months will tell us which way the nation will go.

I have followed the progress of the rebellion in Libya very closely, though mostly from Britain and NATO's point of view... And was quite surprised just how involved I was in this conflict. From the first days of the uprising, when RAF transport aircraft were sent to bring home British nationals. That was the busiest week of work I've ever done, co-ordinating the transport aircraft from the hub of transport operations. Then the deployment of fast jet aircraft to Italy, Germany, Malta and the south of France. I went to Germany first, relaying information, then Malta for three days until the navy arrived, then spent three months in southern Italy with the RAF fighters and bombers, planning and reviewing missions, loading bombs onto aircraft amongst other things. Then at the end I've been working on the draw down for the aircraft returning home.

From the beginning it was obvious that the rebels would struggle with internal issues as much as they would fighting against the Loyalists. Their leaders were not trusted, the various factions refused to work together, and in the end, much of the stability came from the input of NATO with a communications network created to relay information between one faction and the next when different groups would not talk directly to each other. Now though, with NATO's part in the conflict at an end, it will be up to the Libyans to resolve these issues, or we may find them returning to their tribal in fighting and effectively a civil war.
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