'Scores defect' from Gaddafi's army (8 high-ranking officers and 120 military officials)

Source: Al Jazeera English

Eight high-ranking officers and 120 military officials "abandon" armed forces amid growing pressure on Libyan leader.
Last Modified: May 31 2011 03:10 GMT

More than 100 military officials and soldiers have defected from Libya's armed forces in recent days, according to a group of eight military officers, as pressure mounts on leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down.

The high-ranking Libyan army officers appeared at a press conference in Italy on Monday, where they announced that they were part of a group of as many as 120 military officials and soldiers who defected from Gaddafi's side in recent days.

The hastily called news conference was organised by the Italian government for the the eight officers - five generals, two colonels and a major.

"What is happening to our people has frightened us," said one officer, who identified himself as General Oun Ali Oun.

"There is a lot of killing, genocide ... violence against women. No wise, rational person with the minimum of dignity can do what we saw with our eyes and what he asked us to do."

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/05/20115308196965572.html

There is another report of defections via Tunisia that probably includes very high ranking officers.

"No wise, rational person with the minimum of dignity can do what we saw with our eyes and what he asked us to do." - from a general, that's a good perspective, we're all just people after all.

I'm sure we've turned a corner and Ghadafi's regime is 'in the last throes'.

Meanwhile, the rebels are running out of cash. I'm sure Uncle Sugar has some...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0359c5b2-8acd-11e0-b2f1-00144feab49a.html#axzz1NvxCJGg8

"Libya’s western-backed rebels have used up their stock of crude oil, with no certainty about when production can resume from vulnerable south-eastern oil fields, the main exporting company under opposition control has said.

The small refinery at Tobruk, the maritime export terminal near the Egyptian border, shut down late last week after using up the last oil in storage, according to Abdel Jalil Mayouf, spokesman for Arabian Gulf Oil Co (Agoco).

...

If the oil shutdown were to continue for more than a month, gasoline might also become scarce, Mr Mayouf said.

But the rebel authorities, and with them Agoco, appear increasingly confident about beating Mr Gaddafi before then."



See, only about a month to go...

your position on the wrong side of history. So don't be *too* sarcastic now ;)

One doesn't need to be impatient with presidential wars launched without the authorization of Congress, you don't have to wait long and another one comes down the pike.

Chalk it up to one of those things I had hoped would change.

You've bought into the justifications proffered, and that's fine, history does sort those things out. I'm just sick of the lies told by our government as they circumvent the rule of law to wage these 'good little wars' (that we dare not call wars).

Sorry to disappoint you but Obama didn't lie.

have been for months, and just said we'll do it for a few more months:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/nato-formally-extends-libya-mission-90-days-100141091.html

"NATO said on Wednesday it had extended its Libyan mission for a further 90 days, after Muammar Gaddafi made it clear he would not step down, dashing hopes of a negotiated end to the uprising against his rule.

The 28-member alliance originally took over a campaign of air strikes, the enforcement of a no-fly zone and an arms embargo on Libya to protect rebellious civilians from attack by Gaddafi's forces in late March for 90 days.

...

Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, told Reuters in Tripoli on Tuesday that some food stocks in areas under Gaddafi's control were likely to last only weeks."


There you have it. We should be able to starve the Libyan people into protection after just a few more months of bombing. Worked in a decade of bombing and malnourishment in Iraq, right?
Humanitarian war. Sorry, not a war, just bombing another country for weeks and months without the approval of Congress. They said it was for a good reason, and that's good enough for some...
Is there a smiley that combines disappointment with disgust, disbelief and despair at the wickedness that results from short sighted, 'it's ok when we do it', thinking?

these people are not spreading the approved propaganda!!!

Thanks for the thread, Turborama.

:kick:

But it's all bullshit.

If they're defecting, it's not because of the violence, the killings, the rapes, or the incompetent rebels.

It's because the English, the French, the rest of NATO, are doing a much better job of killing than Qaddafi's forces.

They're just trying to save their own asses. And probably their assets.