Gaddafi's forces hit back in Libya as Britain tells Nato: you must do more

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Muammar Gaddafi's forces have responded to Nato's intensified aerial bombardment of Tripoli by launching a heavy attack on rebel positions outside the liberated city of Misrata.

Government troops unleashed a barrage of Grad rockets and mortars against rebel positions to the east, west and south of Misrata early on Wednesday morning, and followed up with an infantry assault. By mid-afternoon, the Hikma hospital reported 10 rebel fighters dead and 26 wounded.

The attack came as Liam Fox, the defence secretary, expressed increasing frustration with the slow progress of the western-led military campaign, forcefully telling fellow Nato ministers at a meeting in Brussels they should contribute more.

The attack on Libya's third biggest city was the heaviest since loyalist forces were overwhelmed there in April, and came a day after Nato pounded military sites in Tripoli from the air. It was the heaviest 24 hours of bombing yet in the capital, with the alliance conducting 66 strike sorties.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/08/gaddafi-forces-libya-britain-nato

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Libya: a deafening silence

The entire media have fallen into line. This is a war to protect civilians. This is a war to force Gaddafi to leave. As if Western governments, with their proud histories of human rights abuses across the world, have any moral right to make judgements on the government of Libya. Etherington’s rhetoric reveals a despicable truth, this war is a game for us, a ‘party’ worth extending.

snip

But why such a silence? Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, which provoked huge outcries across the world, the reaction to Libya has been relatively muted. We have been sold on a false premise, and, as Noam Chomsky would say, have allowed the manufacture of our consent.

Now that the initial smokescreen has been proven a success, the British government, for one, have no need to disguise their aims any more. Not that they ever did. “We’re not going to set a deadline,” says William Hague. Of course not, because imperialism knows no bounds when a war is underway.

snip

This is nothing to do with protecting civilians, and everything to do with re-establishing a waning military and economic domination in the region. When you consider a list of the few countries in the world that do not have US military bases on their soil, it becomes a lot clearer why our “enemies” are who we are taught they are.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/06/07/libya-a-deafening-silence/

[mazzarro]

2. It is about time UN revoke this stupid resolution on Libya

It was submitted with misleading intentions and lies much like the Iraqi resolution. It is a civil war that is going on in Libya and should be seen as that - period.